


The Vanished

by MotherOfSnakes



Series: Loki & Louise [4]
Category: Loki - Fandom, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies), Tom Hiddleston - Fandom
Genre: Adventure, Begging, Blow Jobs, Come Swallowing, Cunnilingus, Dark Magic, Dom/sub, F/M, Jötunn Loki, Multiple Orgasms, Oral Sex, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Romance, Threesome - F/M/M, Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-11-30 20:58:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 22,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11471556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MotherOfSnakes/pseuds/MotherOfSnakes
Summary: Sequel to No Men Like Me. People have been disappearing from Vanaheim, and Loki and Louise must go there to help Thor and friends investigate this strange magical phenomenon. (And have lots of sex along the way, of course!).





	1. Chapter 1

 “So according to your myths, I am not just a father, but a father of monsters?” said Loki, grinning.

 “I’m afraid so,” I confirmed.

 He and I were working on a book about Norse mythology, in which I detailed the human version of the myths, and then Loki explained what really happened, if indeed it happened at all. He found some of the human stories extremely amusing, particularly the ones pertaining to himself. I had just been telling him that, in our legends, he was the father of a giant wolf, a world-encompassing snake, and the ruler of the underworld. He had laughed uproariously.

 It had now been six months since Loki had become mortal and come to live with me on Earth. He was finally beginning to settle in and learn how to behave like a human. At first, he had done things on an almost daily basis that nearly gave me heart failure, such as walking nonchalantly out into the road without checking for traffic.

 He did this on the day I took him clothes shopping just after he arrived. A car had screeched to a halt, horn blaring, and the driver had leaned out of the window. He’d looked hard at Loki, and for a moment I was afraid he had recognised him – it happened occasionally, though not nearly so often as I’d initially feared it might. Without his Asgardian attire, and his arrogant air of superiority, Loki was not so distinctive to people who had only seen images of him on the news, shot from a distance. This man, as it turned out, was simply annoyed with what he saw as a moronic pedestrian, and yelled: “Get out of the bloody road, you idiot!”

 Loki turned a murderous glare on him, and I hurried over, grabbed his arm, and dragged him back to the pavement. “Leave it, Loki,” I hissed, hoping he wasn’t about to attack the man.

 “He insulted me,” growled Loki.

 “Well, you _did_ walk out in front of him,” I said. “You’ve got to be more careful. You’re not a god any more, Loki – a car could kill you.”

 “But why would he drive into me?” said Loki, confusion replacing anger.

 “Because you walked out in front of him!” I reiterated. “He might not have been able to stop in time! Didn’t you have vehicles on Asgard?”

 “Of course,” said Loki, “but they were programmed not to hit things, especially people.”

 I sighed. He was used to a level of technology we simply didn’t have on Earth. It hadn’t even occurred to him that vehicles could be dangerous. “Our vehicles aren’t as advanced as yours,” I explained. “The driver is in full control, and if he or she doesn’t react quickly enough, the car will hit things.”

 Loki seemed horrified. “But mortals are so fragile – don’t people get killed all the time?” he asked.

 “Yes!” I said. “That’s why you’ve got to be careful! Please, Loki, I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.”

 Loki put his arms around me. “Alright, alright,” he said soothingly, “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize. This is all very new to me, you know.”

 Thankfully, he learned quickly, though social conventions we humans had grown up knowing were still strange to him and sometimes had to be explained.

 “What about Sleipnir?” I asked him now.

 “Odin’s horse?” said Loki. “Don’t tell me I’m supposed to have fathered him, too?”

 “Actually,” I said, smiling, “the myths say you’re his _mother_.”

 Loki laughed so hard he almost choked. “Oh, you mortals,” he chuckled once he was able to speak again. “Where do you get these ideas? How in the Nine Realms was I supposed to have given birth to a horse?”

 “The story goes that you, in the form of a mare, mated with the stallion Svadilfari, and Sleipnir was the result.”

 Loki shook his head. “Even supposing I turned myself into a mare,” he said, “why would I mate with a stallion? And even if I did, why would I stay a horse for nearly a year while I carried the foal to term, instead of just turning back? And why would the foal have eight legs?”

 “So he really does have eight legs?” I asked in amazement. I’d assumed that part wasn’t true either.

 “Oh, yes,” said Loki airily. “We made him that way for unmatched speed.”

 “Made him? How did you _make_ him?”

 “Genetic engineering,” said Loki, as though it were blatantly obvious. “Don’t you have that here?”

 “We do, but it’s in its infancy,” I explained. “I highly doubt we could create an eight-legged horse. And even if we did, it’d be considered a horrific mutant rather than a steed fit for a king.”

 “You mortals,” said Loki again.

 “ _You_ are a mortal now, Loki,” I reminded him. “Tell me, do you still consider us beneath you, now that you’re one of us?”

 “Well, _you’re_ beneath me a lot of the time,” Loki said lasciviously. His eyes sparkled with mischief and desire.

 “You _know_ that isn’t what I meant,” I said, trying to sound exasperated but only succeeding in sounding amused. I could already feel the beginnings of arousal stirring in my loins. I knew when he started talking like this that it was only a matter of time before we ended up in bed – or on the nearest available surface, or the floor, or up against the wall. Wherever we were, whatever we were doing, it took only a word, a touch, a certain look from him to cause my ever-simmering lust for him to boil over.

 Loki stood and moved behind me, placing his hands on my shoulders. He bent down and, brushing my hair aside, kissed my neck. “I think it’s time for a break, don’t you?” he breathed in my ear.

 “Loki ... we need to finish this chapter,” I said half-heartedly.

 His hands slid down to my breasts, cupping them gently through my clothes. “Do we?” he said.

 “Uh ...”

 Loki pulled me out of the chair and turned me to face him. He might no longer have his god-like strength, but he was still a powerful man and much, much stronger than me – and he knew I loved it when he overpowered me. He wrapped his arms around me and lifted me easily, holding me against him. My arms went around his neck and my legs around his waist of their own accord. He kissed me deeply, his tongue pushing into my mouth.

 When he broke the kiss I was flushed and panting. “That’s what I thought,” said Loki, smirking, and lowered me back to the ground, making sure to pull me against his crotch as he did so, allowing me to feel his hardness. “Now get those clothes off.”

 “But ...”

 Loki silenced me with another kiss. His hands were at the fastenings of my jeans, and seconds later he had shoved them and my underwear down and reached between my legs. He found me, as always, wet and wanting, and chuckled softly as he stroked my slit. “But ...?” he prompted.

 “Um ... the ... the chapter ...” I gasped. It had become a game now, one we played often – one of us would try to entice the other into amorous activities, to be met (however briefly, in my case) with an entirely feigned show of reluctance. Then the instigator would have to ‘persuade’ the other to give in. Loki was much better at the resisting part than I was. From our first night together he had loved to tease me and make me wait before eventually giving me what I wanted. I, on the other hand, could never resist him for long, and he knew it.

 “Tell me to stop,” said Loki now, his fingertips gliding deliciously over my clit. “Tell me to stop, and I will, I swear it.”

 “Loki ...”

 “Yes?” He slipped a finger inside me and I shuddered with pleasure.

 “Please ...”

 “Just say it,” he purred, almost sounding like he wanted me to. I knew better, though. “Just say the words, and I’ll stop. We can go back to the writing and forget this little ... interlude.”

 “I want ... I want ...” I stammered.

 “Yes, my pet? You want me to stop? You have only to say so.” A second finger joined the first and they slid gently back and forth inside me. He angled his hand so that his palm rubbed against my clit.

 “Oh God, Loki, don’t ... don’t ...”

 “Don’t ...?”

 “Don’t _stop_!” I burst out. Loki laughed triumphantly, and tugged at my top with his free hand. I tore it off and threw it aside, followed by my bra. Then I attacked his clothes. Moments later we were both naked, and Loki was pushing me to the floor. We weren’t going to make it to the bedroom again.

 I got onto my hands and knees and turned so that I was presenting myself to him. Loki kneeled behind me, his hands running over my back and down my buttocks. His fingers curled to brush lightly against my sex, and I whimpered. Suddenly the head of his cock was against my entrance, and he entered me with one quick thrust. I cried out, and he took hold of my hips as he began to pound into me.

 “Loki!” I moaned. “Oh, Loki ...”

 He leaned over so that his belly was pressed to my back, and I felt his lips on my neck. His teeth grazed my skin lightly. The thought of him leaving tooth-marks in my flesh aroused me still further. I wanted him to mark my body the way he had already marked my soul. I pleaded: “Bite me, Loki! Mark me! Mark me as yours!”

 “You _are_ mine,” he growled, and bit down on my shoulder, not quite hard enough to break the skin, but more than hard enough to hurt. I shrieked in a mixture of pain and pleasure, loving the feeling of his teeth gripping me as he took me roughly from behind – it felt primitive, possessive, like he was claiming me, owning me.

 He let go and straightened back up in order to penetrate me more deeply. My arms gave way and I folded them on the floor, resting my head on them, raising my hips even higher and crying out in delight as the new angle caused new sensations to course through me.

 “Who do you belong to?” hissed Loki, ramming himself into me mercilessly.

 “You, Loki!” I groaned.

 “Say it. Tell me you’re mine.”

 “I’m yours, Loki. Yours, all yours!”

 “Mine,” he snarled, slamming into me even harder and repeating the word with each thrust. “Mine, mine, mine ...”

 I was close now, his words in tandem with his actions driving me wild. I could feel my inner muscles tightening around him, trying to hold him inside, trying to milk him. “Come inside me, Loki!” I begged. “Fill me with your seed!”

 “You must come for me first,” he instructed, his right hand snaking under me and the tips of his fingers rubbing my clit in time with his frantic thrusts. “Come for your master, for your king, for your _owner_. Show me how much you love being my slave, my possession. Come. Now!”

 Like the obedient servant I was, I obeyed. I came for him. Hard. My entire body shook as climax rocked me to my core. I screamed his name as the ecstasy washed over me, oblivious to everything but him and the pleasure he gave me. A meteor could have struck the house at that moment and I wouldn’t have noticed. A couple more thrusts and I felt warm wetness spurting into me as my orgasm triggered Loki’s. I arched my back, pushing my hips into him, taking every inch of him and ensuring his seed was spilled as deep within me as possible.

 As our shudders subsided, Loki sank down on top of me, pushing me to the floor, still inside me. He lay there covering me for only a few seconds, then rolled to his side, pulling me with him so that I ended up with my back to his chest and belly, his arms around me.

 “Oh, Loki,” I sighed. “You are amazing.”

 “So are you,” he replied, kissing the sore place on my shoulder where he’d bitten me.

 “Is there a mark there?” I asked.

 “Yes,” said Loki, sounding slightly guilty. “It’s going to bruise. My apologies.”

 “Don’t apologise,” I said, “that’s what I wanted. I want everyone to know I’m yours.”

 “I think they know that from the way you scream my name when you come,” Loki said silkily, and I quivered, feeling my desire rising again.

 Then, to my irritation, the doorbell rang.


	2. Chapter 2

 Loki and I separated and scrambled to hastily pull on our clothes. I went to answer the door as I finished dressing first. Opening it, I was confronted by a tall, bald black man with a goatee beard and an eyepatch. He gazed at me without speaking. It was rather intimidating, especially since the intense, one-eyed stare reminded me of Odin.

 “Er ... can I help you?” I said.

 There was a loud crash from the living room, and I whipped round. The man at the door pushed past me into the house, saying in an American accent: “You just have.”

 “Hey!” I shouted. “What the Hell d’you think you’re doing?”

 The man headed for the living room and I followed. Entering, I saw that the back door was wide open and the couch had been overturned, explaining the crash. Loki – fortunately now dressed, but still looking rather dishevelled – was standing with his back against the wall. His hands were raised in an ‘I surrender’ pose, but he seemed perfectly calm, even amused. In front of him stood two men, one of them completely encased in a flamboyant, red and gold suit of armour. I recognised them instantly, as did everyone since the incident in New York – Iron Man and Hawkeye, members of the Avengers. Hawkeye, or Clint Barton to give him his proper name, was holding a sophisticated-looking bow, an arrow on the string aimed directly at Loki.

 “What’s going on?” I cried in alarm, rushing over and placing myself between Loki and Barton. It was a somewhat futile gesture – Loki was so much taller than I that Barton could easily have put the arrow through his eye-socket without it coming anywhere near me – but I hoped the act would make Barton pause.

 “I believe they are here to check up on me,” said Loki mildly. He shifted behind me and I knew he intended to push me aside. But before he could do so, Barton said: “Don’t move a muscle, or I loose this arrow.”

 “I was merely going to move the woman out of the line of fire,” said Loki icily as he stilled, “but as you wish.”

 At that moment, two more people entered the room, one from the direction of the bedroom and the other from the kitchen. These, too, were members of the Avengers, Captain America and Black Widow. They had evidently been inspecting the rest of the house for anything of note – they both nodded deferentially at the man with the eyepatch and said in unison: “All clear.”

 “What do you mean, they’re checking up on you?” I said to Loki as I suspiciously eyed the superheroes standing in my living room. “How did they even know you’re on Earth? Thor?”

 “You are correct,” said the one-eyed man.

 “Who are you?” I asked, none too politely.

 “I am Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” he said. Loki had told me about S.H.I.E.L.D. – they were the secret intelligence agency that had assembled the Avengers in response to his invasion of Earth.

 “Well, what the Hell are you all doing in my home, threatening my boyfriend?” I demanded. “Is the Hulk here too? Is my house about to be smashed to bits on top of being broken into?”

 “Boyfriend?” said Steve Rogers, the real name of Captain America, sounding surprised.

 “Dr. Banner is not here,” said Fury composedly, “and nobody’s going to be smashing anything.”

 The face-plate of Iron Man’s helmet slid open, revealing the face of billionaire playboy Tony Stark. He was looking at me intently, and I realized he was trying to remember where he’d seen me before. “I know you, don’t I?” he said, his brow furrowing.

 “Um ...”

 Stark jabbed a finger at me as it came to him. “You’re that girl,” he said, “from my bedroom.”

 “Gonna have to narrow it down a bit, Stark,” said Barton, deadpan. Neither his eyes nor his arrow wavered from Loki as he spoke.

 “After the battle in New York,” said Stark, “I found a woman in my bedroom in Stark Tower, remember? This is her. We all assumed that Tall, Dark and Psycho over here had been holding her captive, that he’d used that sceptre on her, like he did with Dr. Selvig. But you weren’t under a spell at all, were you?” He directed the last question at me in an accusatory tone.

 It might have been the stress of the situation inducing slight hysteria, but I couldn’t help but respond flippantly. “I was,” I said, “just not the one you’re thinking of. Loki did some truly magical things to my body. I suppose you could say there was a ‘sceptre’ involved, but ...”

 Natasha Romanoff – Black Widow – held up a hand, a queasy expression on her face. “Please stop,” she said, “I just ate.”

 “You mean to say you were with him _willingly_?” said Rogers to me, inclining his head towards Loki.

 “Yes,” I said, lifting my chin defiantly. I wasn’t ashamed. Choosing to go with Loki that night had been the best decision I ever made. I’d never really known what happiness meant until I met him. “Now do you want to explain this home invasion or do I have to call the police?”

 “Let’s all just calm down, shall we?” said Fury, who had himself remained entirely serene throughout the exchange. “Agent Barton, I think you can lower that arrow now. Somebody turn the couch back over and we’ll all take a seat and have a civil conversation. Everyone okay with that?”

 Reluctantly, Barton lowered his bow, but he held it as though ready to whip it up again in an instant and he continued to glare at Loki. Rogers flipped the couch the right way up and took a seat on it. Stark and Barton joined him, and Romanoff perched herself on the arm. Fury settled himself in one of my armchairs. “Please, sit,” he said to Loki and myself, indicating the other armchair.

 I turned to face Loki and pressed myself against him, clinging to him tightly. He wrapped his arms around me. For the first time I realized I was shaking. I hadn’t let myself feel it while the confrontation was taking place, but I’d been terrified – not for myself, but for Loki. Barton could have killed him. “Loki ...” I whispered.

 “Sssh,” he said soothingly, rubbing his hands across my back. “It’s alright. I appreciate you trying to protect me, but please don’t do that again. I won’t have you putting yourself in danger because of me. Come on, now.”

 He guided me over to the one remaining chair and sank into it, pulling me onto his lap. I snuggled into him, seeking the reassurance of his touch, my arms around his neck. Glancing over at the Avengers, I was irritated to see a sneer on Stark’s face and almost identical expressions of revulsion on Barton’s and Romanoff’s. Rogers was studiously looking the other way. I purposefully laid my head on Loki’s shoulder and kissed his neck.

 “Ahem,” Fury fake-coughed, drawing everyone’s attention back to him. “As you rightly guessed,” he continued, “we were informed of Loki’s presence here on Earth by Thor, and considered it our duty to make sure he was not up to any ... mischief.”

 “If Thor told you Loki was here,” I said, raising my head, “he must also have told you he’s human now. He’s no threat to you any more.”

 “Being human hardly guarantees he’s not a threat,” said Stark, gesturing at himself as though to say: “I’m human, and look what I can do.”

 “I don’t see how I can _guarantee_ anything,” said Loki. “What do you want me to do, sign a statement saying I’ll be a good little boy?”

 “Do you think we’d take it seriously if you did?” Romanoff replied.

 “Exactly,” said Loki. “Doesn’t matter what I do or say, does it? You won’t believe me.”

 “Can you blame us?” said Fury. “You tried to take over our _world_. What’s to say you won’t try it again?”

 Loki shrugged. “All I can do is give you my word,” he said.

 “Which is worth nothing,” asserted Barton.

 “Why did you bother coming here to interrogate him if you’re not going to believe anything he says?” I said angrily.

 A rumble of thunder rolled across the sky. I’d have ignored it, along with Fury and the Avengers, if it weren’t for the way Loki tensed under me and looked over at the nearest window. Then I suddenly realized what thunder meant to him, and looked to the window myself. Seconds later a blaze of blinding white light filled the room as the Bifrost’s beam touched down in the garden. The Avengers and Fury all jumped to their feet, Barton levelling his bow at Loki again. Romanoff and Fury drew guns and aimed them at the door, while Stark readied his suit’s weapons and Rogers hefted his famous shield.

 “There’s no need for that,” I snapped, “it’s only Thor.”

 “We don’t know that,” said Fury.

 “ _I_ do,” said Loki, pointing upwards. “Didn’t you hear the thunder?”

 The beam of light retreated and, sure enough, there was Thor standing where it had deposited him.


	3. Chapter 3

 Fury and Romanoff holstered their guns, and Barton – again somewhat reluctantly – lowered his bow. Rogers returned his shield to his back and Stark’s weapons audibly powered down. Thor strolled over to the still-open door and ducked through it. He stopped in surprise at the sight of so many people, clearly expecting only Loki and myself.

 “Greetings, friends,” he said amiably. “I did not expect to find all of you here.”

 “You probably should have, since you’re the one who tipped them off as to my location,” said Loki sourly.

 Thor stared at him for a moment, then said: “Ah. I take it they came to ...”

 “To check up on me, yes,” Loki interrupted.

 Thor turned to Fury. “I thought I reassured you that Loki means no harm to Midgard or its inhabitants,” he said mildly.

 “You did,” said Fury, “but I felt obliged to see for myself. The safety of this world is at stake.”

 “Loki has been here six months,” said Thor. “In all that time, has there been any indication that he intends trouble?”

 “Well, no, but that does not mean ...”

 “You have my word on this matter,” said Thor with finality. “If you have any problems with Loki, you may bring them to me, and I will resolve them. Now, if you wouldn’t mind, I wish to speak with my brother alone.”

 Nobody moved for a minute. Fury appeared to be weighing up his options, deciding whether or not to challenge Thor. Eventually he sighed and said: “Very well. I will accept your assurance that you will monitor your brother. For now. But mark my words, S.H.I.E.L.D. will do anything and everything necessary to defend this world, should the need arise.”

 So saying, he turned and stalked out of the house. With varying degrees of willingness, the Avengers followed him, one by one. Barton was the last to leave, his gaze lingering on Loki as though he would like nothing more than to fill him full of arrows. “He really seems to hate you,” I whispered to Loki as Barton jerked the door shut behind him.

 “I don’t think any of them are too fond of me, my love,” Loki answered with a grin.

 “Well, obviously, but he looks at you like he wishes he could make you burst into flames with his eyes,” I said.

 “There may be a reason for that,” said Loki, a little uncomfortably. “Last time I was on Earth I took control of him with my sceptre. I made him work for me and attack his friends.”

 “Oh,” I said, understanding. “That explains it.”

 Thor, who had been watching the Avengers’ departure through the window, walked over and seated himself in the chair recently vacated by Fury. It creaked under his weight. “I apologise, Loki,” he said. “When I informed Fury of your presence here I did not expect ...”

 “You should have,” Loki broke in. “Did you honestly think he and his minions would just let me be?”

 Thor had the decency to look ashamed. “I am sorry,” he said, “but I did assure him you no longer had plans for world domination and wished only to be left in peace. And I promised him I would deal with it should there be a ... situation.”

 Loki snorted derisively.

 “So, Thor,” I said, trying to change the subject, “how is everyone on Asgard? Is your mother well?”

 “Yes, she sends her love,” Thor said. “However, unfortunately I am not just here for a social visit. I need your help, brother.”

 Loki let out a long-suffering sigh. “What with?” he asked.

 “There is trouble on Vanaheim,” Thor explained. “Hogun returned to live there some months ago, and has sent word of strange happenings that must be investigated.”

 “And why exactly do you need me for this?” Loki wanted to know. “Can’t you just go and whack this ‘trouble’ with your hammer as you usually do?”

 “The incidents are magical in nature,” said Thor. “We need a master of magic to aid us in deciphering them.”

 “In case you’ve forgotten,” said Loki, waving a hand as though he were casting a spell, “I am human now. I no longer have any magic.”

 “But you still understand it better than anyone else,” Thor said. “And besides ... the Allfather has agreed to reinstate your powers for the duration of this mission, should you agree to accompany us.”

 Loki’s jaw dropped in astonishment. After a moment he said: “He must be truly desperate for answers if he’s prepared to do that.”

 “He is,” said Thor gravely. “Many lives are at stake.”

 “And how long is this mission likely to last?”

 “I’m afraid I don’t know. It could be days, it could be months. It all depends on what we find and how we deal with it.”

 Loki looked round at me. “What do you think?” he said.

 “If lives are at stake, I think you should help,” I said. “Besides, I’d like to see Vanaheim.”

 “ _What_?” said Loki and Thor together.

 “You didn’t think I’d let you go swanning off to another planet without me, did you?” I said to Loki, smiling sweetly.

 “My lady, it could be very dangerous,” said Thor, “and after all, you are only human.”

 Loki glared at him. “ _I_ am ‘only human’ at present, Thor,” he growled, “and I’d have thought after New York you would have learned that humans are much more formidable than they seem. I certainly did.”

 “I meant no disrespect,” said Thor. “Surely you do not want your woman placed in harm’s way?”

 “Of course I don’t,” said Loki irritably.

 “Loki,” I said seriously, “I won’t be separated from you again. Where you go, I go. I trust you to protect me, should I need protecting.”

 “Can you fight?” Thor asked me.

 “Well, there’s a cheating bastard ex of mine who could tell you I have quite a right hook,” I said, smacking my right fist into my left palm for emphasis. Loki laughed, but Thor looked shocked.

 “You punched him?” he said. “That is ... not ladylike.”

 “What exactly do you mean by that?” snapped Loki.

 “Nothing, nothing,” said Thor hastily, holding up his hands.

 “I should hope not,” Loki said. “And if you like your face the way it is, I would not express that sentiment around Lady Sif, brother.”

 “I take your point,” said Thor. “So ... am I to assume you will both accompany me back to Asgard?”

 I looked at Loki. “It’s up to you,” I said, “but if you go, I’m going with you.”

 Loki hugged me to him. “I confess the trip would be more enjoyable with your company,” he said, “but I _would_ be worried for your safety. Who else would be with us, Thor?”

 “Fandral, Volstagg and Sif will travel to Vanaheim with us, and we’ll meet Hogun there.”

 “Between the six of us, I think we can keep you safe,” said Loki to me. “Very well, Thor, we will join you. Can you tell us anything more about these events on Vanaheim? What exactly is the trouble?”

 “People have been disappearing,” said Thor. “Not just people, either – animals, too. Whole towns are deserted of every living thing above the level of a plant. Even Heimdall cannot see where they've gone. There are no tracks, no signs of battle, nothing. There are tools left lying as though dropped in the middle of tasks and meals left half-eaten as though everyone just suddenly ... vanished.”

 “Like the _Marie Celeste_ ,” I said.

 Thor and Loki both looked at me quizzically. “The what?” said Loki.

 “It was a ship,” I explained. “Everyone on board disappeared, just like you described – meals half-eaten and so on.”

 “Odd,” remarked Thor. “Anyway, some of Hogun’s relatives are among the vanished. He contacted Asgard for help, and naturally we were all very concerned. I volunteered to go at once, and suggested to Father that you would be invaluable in investigating this magic, Loki.”

 “Hogun is a friend of yours?” I asked.

 “A good friend, yes,” replied Thor. “He’s a native of Vanaheim, but he lived on Asgard for a long time. In our youth we had many adventures together – myself, Loki, the Lady Sif, and the Warriors Three. Hogun’s one of the warriors, and the other two are those coming with us, Fandral and Volstagg.”

 “In our legends,” I said, “Sif is known as your wife, Thor.”

 Thor laughed heartily. “She is more like a sister to me,” he said, but I noticed that Loki arched an eyebrow, though he said nothing.

 “So, when do we depart?” said Loki.

 “As soon as you are ready,” Thor responded. “You can pack light – we’ll acquire most of what we need back on Asgard.”


	4. Chapter 4

 I had been to Asgard once before, but my stay had been brief and spent mostly in the dungeons, where Loki had been imprisoned at the time. I’d never thought I would get to go back. As I walked across the Rainbow Bridge with Loki and Thor my heart thrilled with excitement at being here again.

 Thor had informed us that Odin and Frigga wished to see us before we left for Vanaheim, both so that they could greet us and so that Odin could restore Loki’s powers. Frigga had been kind to me on my previous visit, but I was not especially looking forward to seeing Odin again. He had made it clear that he did not approve of mortals being on Asgard, and I’d found him extremely intimidating. This feeling was only heightened when Thor led us into the gilded opulence of the throne room – it was the largest and most luxurious room I had ever seen. It appeared to be made almost entirely of gold, or at least something gold-coloured, and was filled with gigantic statues, ornate carvings, intricate tapestries and the like. I noticed a prevalence of a particular symbol – a knot-like emblem made up of three intertwining ovals, forming a triangular shape – that I had seen somewhere before. After a moment I recalled that it was engraved on the side of Mjolnir, Thor’s hammer, which he carried everywhere. Here it appeared on the walls, the floor, the ceiling, the throne, and on the front of the dress worn by Frigga, who stood next to the throne.

 The throne was massive and golden, and rested upon a dais with a number of wide steps leading up to it. Upon it sat Odin, staring down at us with his single eye as we approached. We stopped at the foot of the steps, and Thor went to one knee, crossing his right arm over his chest. I quickly copied him, and Loki followed with deliberate slowness. I knew his feelings about Odin were complicated, but his insolence worried me a little. Perhaps he no longer considered Odin his king, but he was still the Allfather, protector of the Nine Realms, an all-powerful god.

 Odin got to his feet, the famed spear Gungnir clutched in his hand. “Rise,” he said after a short pause. As we did so, Frigga came forward, smiling, and embraced Loki and then, to my embarrassment, me. Odin descended the steps, eyeing me but speaking to Loki: “Why have you brought your mortal with you, Loki?”

 “She’s coming with us to Vanaheim,” Loki answered.

 “Why?” Odin wanted to know.

 “Because she wants to,” said Loki. He spoke calmly, but I could feel the tension radiating from him. I stroked his arm soothingly.

 “Thor, why did you allow this?” Odin asked his other son.

 Thor shrugged. “How could I have stopped her?” he said. “Besides, if she wants to accompany us, that’s up to her, isn’t it?”

 Odin looked as though he were going to continue, but Frigga placed a hand on his arm and said: “Let it go, my love. It’s not important, is it?”

 “She’ll distract Loki,” grumbled Odin. “He’ll be worrying about her instead of concentrating on the task at hand.”

 “I didn’t have to come at all, you know,” said Loki between gritted teeth. “I’m here as a favour. If having Louise with me is going to be a problem, we can always go back to Midgard and leave Thor and the rest to deal with this Vanaheim predicament by themselves.”

 “Please don’t do that,” said Frigga. “They need you. Nobody knows magic like you do.”

 “Speaking of which,” said Loki, “Thor tells me my powers will be reinstated for this mission – or is there going to be an issue with that, too?”

 Odin sighed heavily and said: “No. I will restore your magic, and I will say no more about the mortal. Your help with the vanishings will be ... valuable. Just see that you are not distracted.”

 Loki nodded curtly, and Odin held out a hand, which Loki grasped in his. A green glow surrounded Odin, then passed from his hand into Loki’s, spreading rapidly over his body from the point of contact. The glow faded from Odin and briefly surrounded Loki, before sinking into him and disappearing. He gasped softly as Odin released his hand. He had been human for six months, and now he was a god again. I could only imagine how that felt.

 “Now get out of those ridiculous Midgardian clothes,” Odin ordered.

 Loki was wearing black trousers and a green shirt – he didn’t look in the least ridiculous to my eyes, but I supposed he must look rather odd to Asgardian ones. He snapped his fingers and his clothes melted into the black leather armour and long green cape he had been wearing the night I first met him. He suddenly looked much more regal and imposing.

 “Ooh,” I said appreciatively, looking him up and down, “I forgot how sexy you look in that.”

 Loki grinned. “You must have some Asgardian attire too,” he said, and waved a hand in my direction. My jeans and casual top were instantly replaced by a floor-length silk gown in Loki’s favourite shade of green.

 I had never liked dresses. I hadn’t worn one since I was seven years old, and that had been under protest. “Loki!” I said indignantly. “Get this off me at once!”

 Loki’s grin widened. “Whilst I do enjoy your eagerness, my dear, I must remind you we are in the presence of my family,” he purred.

 I could feel myself blushing, and heard Thor snort as he tried to smother a laugh. “You know what I meant,” I said, embarrassed.

 “Very well,” said Loki, “is this better?” He waved his hand again and the dress became golden armour, similar to that worn by the Einherjar. It was definitely an improvement, but it was so stiff and heavy I could hardly move.

 “Better,” I said, “but nearly as impractical. I’m a feeble mortal, remember? I can’t carry all this weight.”

 Loki sighed exaggeratedly. “Perhaps this will suit?” he suggested. The armour became a pair of brown leather trousers and a simple green tunic.

 “Perfect,” I said.

 

 A short while later, having packed various required items (Loki assured me he could conjure anything we’d forgotten), Loki and I stood in the stable-yard outside the palace, where we were to meet up with Thor and his companions. I had not realized until now that we would be taking horses with us for transport.

 “Can you ride?” Loki asked me in sudden consternation. It had obviously not occurred to him to ask this question until now – everyone on Asgard could ride, and it seemed it was only the sight of the horses peering from their stalls that abruptly reminded him things were different on Earth.

 I raised my eyebrows and grinned. “I’d have thought you of all people would know the answer to that,” I quipped.

 Loki shook his head in mock exasperation. “I meant, can you ride _horses_?” he clarified. “As you well knew.”

 “Yes,” I said. “That is, I learned as a kid, but I haven’t done it in years. What would we have done if I couldn’t?”

 “You’d ride with me on my horse,” Loki replied.

 “Mmm,” I mused, picturing myself pressed against Loki, my body rocking against his with the motion of the horse. “I rather like the sound of that. Maybe I don’t remember how to ride ...”

 “Stop it,” said Loki sternly, wagging a finger at me. The effect was rather spoiled by his large smile. Then he signalled to a nearby groom. “Fetch my horse,” he instructed, “and find an appropriate mount for my lady.”

 “Yes, your highness,” said the groom with a bow, and left. A few minutes later he returned leading a pretty little mare, bright chestnut with a white blaze. “This one should suit you, my lady,” he said to me. “She is patient and calm. She’s called Rusty.”

 “She’s lovely!” I exclaimed, stroking the horse’s velvet nose. The groom smiled, and left to get Loki’s horse.

 The animal he brought out was exactly the sort of steed I’d pictured Loki having, a great, powerful stallion as black as night. Loki took him from the groom, who went back to his duties. I went over to pat the stallion’s muscular neck. “He’s a beauty,” I said. “What’s his name?”

 “Dark Prince,” said Loki, rather sheepishly.

 “Dark Prince?” I giggled. “Did _you_ call him that?”

 “No, as a matter of fact it was Thor,” Loki said with a roll of his eyes.

 “That figures,” I said. “What did he name _his_ horse – Thunder?”

 “No, but you won’t be surprised to hear he named it Warrior.”

 I chuckled. “Let me guess,” I said, “it’s a huge white stallion ...”

 Grinning, Loki silently pointed to something behind me. I turned to see another groom leading a horse towards Thor, who had just entered the yard. The horse was a huge white stallion. I burst out laughing.

 Taking his horse from the groom, Thor walked over to us with a puzzled expression on his face. “What amuses you so?” he asked me.

 “Oh, nothing,” I said, stifling my laughter. I was saved from having to make any further explanation by the arrival of the three people who would be accompanying us to Vanaheim. Even the female, the shortest of them, was close to six feet tall. I felt like I was getting a crick in my neck from all the looking up I’d been doing since I arrived on Asgard. Was _everyone_ here freakishly tall? True, I was short even by Earth standards, but next to these towering gods I felt like a child surrounded by adults – diminutive, insignificant. Useless.

 The three newcomers greeted Thor warmly, then turned their attention to Loki. The two male warriors eyed him warily, whilst the female, who could only be Sif, glared with open hostility. After a few tense moments, the younger of the males appeared to resign himself to making the first move. He was handsome, with blond hair that fell rakishly across his forehead and a short, neatly-trimmed beard and moustache. He stepped closer and held out a hand, saying flatly: “Loki.”

 “Fandral,” Loki responded in a similar tone. They clasped each other’s forearms in the Asgardian version of a handshake, and both quickly let go.

 “And this must be the mortal woman Thor has told us about,” said Fandral, looking at me and smiling.

 “Um ... hi,” I said awkwardly. “I’m Louise.”

 “Fandral the Dashing at your service, my lady,” said Fandral, bowing in an unnecessarily elaborate fashion. “Allow me to introduce my comrades in arms – Volstagg the Valiant and the Lady Sif.”

 Volstagg, a large, rotund fellow with long, shaggy red hair and a matching beard, nodded briefly at me and then, still somewhat suspiciously, at Loki. Sif ignored me completely, her venomous gaze fixed on Loki. She was very beautiful, but the expression of obvious dislike twisting her features marred that beauty. The Norse myths spoke of her as a golden-haired goddess of family and the earth, but the reality was very different. She looked exceedingly warlike – battle-hardened, armoured and equipped with various weapons – and the long pony-tail trailing from her head was dark, almost black.

 Slowly and deliberately, she drew a staff from her back. As she twirled it in her hands, it sprouted a wicked-looking blade at each end. Then, without warning, she sprang forward, one of the blades aimed directly at Loki’s neck.

 My heart seemed to stop. I wanted to scream, to leap in front of Loki, to grab the staff – to do something, anything, to prevent the attack. But I was frozen in place, unable to move a muscle, and, to my horror, Loki wasn’t moving either. He didn’t even flinch as the blade shot towards him. Sif aborted her strike at the last possible second, halting the blade an inch from his throat.

 Loki, who had evidently known her attack was a feint all along, heaved a dramatic sigh and said coolly: “And here I was, hoping nobody else would be pointing weapons at me today.”

 My heart seemed to start up again, pounding with anger and fear. “What the fuck are you doing?” I shrieked at Sif. She did not spare me so much as a glance, her eyes remaining locked with Loki’s. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me against him without looking away from her.

 “I just want you to know, Loki,” hissed Sif, “that if you attempt to betray your brother again, I will kill you.”

 “Nice to see you too,” said Loki sarcastically.

 Her lip curling, Sif withdrew the staff. A flick of her wrist made the blades retract, and she stowed the weapon once more across her back. Thor, who looked rather shocked at her behaviour, took her arm and said seriously: “Sif, that was not necessary. Loki is a reformed character these days. I have forgiven him for his past misdemeanours, and I would hope that you can do the same.”

 The look Sif gave him was full of unfulfilled longing, and I suddenly understood her actions. She was in love with Thor, and had clearly taken Loki’s offences against him harder than Thor had himself. He was plainly oblivious, and I recalled telling him that Sif was his wife in Earth’s legends – the way he had laughed and said he thought of her as a sister, and the way Loki had reacted. Of course Loki knew how Sif felt about his brother, as perceptive as he was, but apparently he had never revealed her feelings to Thor. I looked over at Fandral and Volstagg, wondering if they were aware of their friend’s unrequited love, but they appeared as ignorant as Thor on the subject. For all their supposed advances, it seemed most Asgardian men were as clueless as Earth ones when it came to matters of the heart.

 Fortunately, a pair of grooms approached with horses just then, distracting all of us from the uncomfortable atmosphere. Fandral and Sif both had brown mares, whom I learned had the somewhat ostentatious names Firehooves and Valorous, and Volstagg’s steed was a hefty bay gelding called Charger. They began mounting up, and Thor gestured for Loki and I to hurry up and get on our own horses. Loki swung gracefully into Dark Prince’s saddle while I scrambled onto Rusty, feeling very undignified and out of practice.

 “To Vanaheim!” cried Thor, and kicked Warrior into a gallop.


	5. Chapter 5

 I was surprised at how well the horses tolerated travelling through a dazzling interstellar shaft of light – they seemed considerably less bothered by it than I was myself – but Loki explained they’d been trained and accustomed to it from a young age. The Bifrost set us down on a hill-top overlooking a settlement that greatly resembled a medieval English village. This was another surprise for me – I’d expected vast, shimmering cities like I’d seen on Asgard. Beyond the village lay farmland, and beyond that, untamed grasslands and forest. In the distance, huge mountains reared against the sky. Vanaheim looked very much like parts of Earth, or at least like parts of Earth once did.

 Nearby, a grey gelding was grazing peacefully, tethered to a tree by a long lead. There was no other sign of life. Nothing moved in the village below. Not a bird sang, not an insect buzzed. This was evidently one of the places where a ‘vanishing’ had happened. Thor pointed to the gelding and said: “That’s Blade, Hogun’s horse. We’re in the right place.”

 “Then where is Hogun?” asked Sif worriedly. “He knew we were coming, didn’t he?”

 “He’s probably in the village somewhere,” said Fandral. “Let’s go and see.”

 As we rode down the hillside, I noticed Loki fidgeting in his saddle, continually glancing left and right, his hands twitching. I steered Rusty closer to Dark Prince and said quietly: “What is it, Loki?”

 “Magic,” he replied, “or the residue of it. Powerful sorcery has been at work here. I can feel it.”

 “Do you know what caused it?” I asked.

 “No, but it feels ... odd. Unlike anything I’m familiar with.”

 “Hail, friends!” came a call, and I looked round to see a dark-haired man walking towards us from the village. He looked like a samurai warrior, or at least like my idea of one – I knew nothing about them other than what I’d seen in movies.

 “Greetings, Hogun!” cried Thor. He dismounted and embraced his friend. Hogun clapped him on the back, then smiled and waved at his fellow warriors. His smile faltered when he set eyes on Loki, but he nodded politely at him, then looked inquiringly at me. “That’s Louise,” said Thor, before Hogun had a chance to ask. “She’s Loki’s woman, from Midgard. Louise, this is Hogun the Grim, my good friend.”

 “Hi,” I said.

 “Welcome to Vanaheim,” Hogun responded, then looked at Thor. “Your father must be _delighted_ that both his sons have chosen mortal women,” he remarked.

 “He’s not _my_ father,” said Loki at once, “and I couldn’t care less what he thinks.”

 “Well, let’s not get into that right now,” said Thor hastily.

 “Indeed,” said Volstagg, “by my reckoning it’s high time for supper!”

 Hogun retrieved his horse from its grazing place and led us to the village inn, where we would be spending the night before beginning our investigation the following day. It had roomy stables where we settled our horses, and once they were fed we went inside to feed ourselves. While the rest of us ate a hearty stew prepared by Hogun, Volstagg began unpacking a vast array of different food-stuffs from his saddle-bags and laying them out on the table. He seemed to have brought nothing with him but food. He gleefully set about his feast, ignored by the others who were apparently used to his gluttony. I couldn’t help staring, having never seen a single person eat so much before.

 Noticing me watching him, Volstagg smiled and said: “You must sample some Asgardian cuisine, Louise! Here, try this.” He held out something that resembled a black, shrivelled kidney. It didn’t look very appetising.

 “Er ... what is it?” I asked hesitantly.

 “Dried bilgesnipe,” Volstagg answered.

 “Dried _what_?” I said.

 “Bilgesnipe,” Volstagg repeated. “I killed it myself, back on Asgard.” He beamed proudly. When I, having no idea what a bilgesnipe was, did not seem impressed with what he plainly thought was a great feat of bravery, his face fell. “They’re very dangerous, you know,” he added, sounding slightly peevish.

 “She _doesn’t_ know. They don’t have bilgesnipe on Midgard,” Thor informed him.

 “Really? All the more reason to try it, then!” said Volstagg, pushing the piece of desiccated flesh into my hand.

 “I wouldn’t, if I were you,” Fandral advised me.

 “What exactly _is_ a bilgesnipe?” I wanted to know.

 “They look a bit like a scaly rhino with the antlers of a moose,” said Loki, “and they taste foul.”

 “Um ... maybe I’ll try it later,” I said, dropping the meat back onto Volstagg’s plate.

 “Please yourself,” said Volstagg with a shrug. He stabbed his knife into the bilgesnipe and popped it into his mouth, chewing with every appearance of relish.

 I looked down at the stew on my plate, suddenly wondering what I’d been eating thus far. It tasted like pork, but who knew what weird creature it had come from? “What ... er ... what’s in this?” I mumbled, hoping I wasn’t being rude.

 “Oh, don’t worry,” said Loki breezily, “this is just dog.”

 I choked, looking up at him in horror. Loki burst into laughter. “I’m joking, I’m joking!” he assured me as he tried to contain his mirth. “It’s wild boar!”

 I punched him in the arm as I recovered from my coughing fit. “That was _not funny_ , Loki!” I chided him.

 “I respectfully disagree,” he chuckled.

 I rolled my eyes and went back to eating. I wasn’t really angry. He was the god of mischief, after all.

 

 The meal finished, we retreated upstairs to the inn’s guest rooms, which were simple but comfortable. The moment the door of mine and Loki’s room closed behind us, he gestured with one hand and our clothes disappeared. I squeaked in surprise and automatically tried to cover myself for an instant, before realizing we were alone and it was nothing Loki hadn’t seen many, many times before.

 “It’s nice to be able to do that again,” Loki said with satisfaction, “though I admit the mortal way of undressing does have its charms.”

 “Keen to get down to business tonight?” I asked, smiling in what I hoped was a seductive fashion.

 “Is that any way to speak to a god, mortal?” Loki replied haughtily, and I quivered with excitement at the hint of menace in his voice.

 “I’m sorry, my king,” I said meekly. “How may I serve you?”

 Loki reclined in the room’s single, large armchair, somehow managing to look at once lazy and regal, like a lounging lion. He beckoned to me with one finger, and I went to him, standing between his legs and keeping my gaze downcast in a properly submissive manner – though I couldn’t help but glance at his cock, already half-hard, every few seconds.

 “Kneel before me,” he commanded. I sank to my knees immediately, licking my lips in anticipation. I knew what came next. Loki indicated his cock, now fully erect, and ordered: “Suck me.”

 I leaned in and fastened my lips over the head of his cock, then paused as I registered the change. For the last six months, Loki had been human – his flesh had been as warm as mine. Now his natural heritage had been restored, his body temperature was lower, and, as it had been the very first time I’d done this, his hardness was cool against my hot tongue. I sucked gently, and slowly engulfed more of his length. Loki groaned.

 “That’s it, my pet,” he said approvingly as his fingers worked their way into my hair. “Please your master well and you will be rewarded.”

 I sucked harder and began to bob up and down. Loki’s grip on my hair tightened and his hips started to buck in time with my movements. Knowing I was pleasing him enhanced my own desire, and I longed to press my fingers into my sex, but Loki had rules on that – only he was allowed to pleasure me, unless he wanted to watch me touch myself.

 Loki’s hips bucked harder, thrusting into my mouth, and I had to concentrate to subdue my gag reflex as his cock prodded the back of my throat. “I’m going to come in your mouth,” he hissed, “and you’re going to swallow it like a good girl, aren’t you?”

 I whimpered softly in affirmation. I wasn’t especially fond of the taste of come, but it did turn me on when Loki spilled his seed in my mouth, and knowing how swallowing it aroused him made it worth it. I increased my efforts, working him with my tongue and using my hands to stroke what I couldn’t fit into my mouth.

 Loki grabbed the back of my neck and held me still, as much of his length as I could take rammed into my throat. With a sound somewhere between a growl and a gasp, he came. The jets of come spurting into my mouth were cool, like his body – this had startled me on our first night together, and of course it had changed when he’d become human, but I was ready for it this time. I swallowed repeatedly, still sucking, milking out every last drop.

 With a sigh of satisfaction, Loki slumped back in the chair, releasing my neck and pulling his cock from my mouth. I sat back on my heels, arousal throbbing between my legs, eager to see how he was going to reward me. When nothing happened, I peeked up at him. He was resting his head against the back of the chair, eyes closed, breathing deeply. He looked like he might fall asleep at any moment.

 “Loki?” I said quietly. Loki’s eyes opened and he looked down at me. “My ... ah ... my reward?” I reminded him.

 Loki stretched elaborately, showing off his delicious body and the way his muscles rippled as he moved in a manner clearly calculated to inflame my desire. “I’m sorry, my pet,” he said with feigned weariness, “I think you’ve worn me out.”

 He was playing with me. I knew for a fact he was more than capable of continuing – even as a mortal, he had more stamina than anyone I’d ever met. As a god ... well, he could literally go all night. “Please, master, don’t tease me,” I said reproachfully.

 In a flash, Loki seized me and pulled me to my feet, making me yelp in surprise at the unexpected, lightning-fast movement. He yanked me towards him, stopping with my face just inches from his own. “I do what I want,” he said, “and you do what I tell you.”

 A long shiver of lust ran through me and I said plaintively: “Please, my king. I need you.” As I spoke I lowered myself onto his thigh, which my legs were now straddling, and rubbed my moist slit against his skin. “See how wet you make me? How much I want you?”

 “Stop that!” said Loki sharply. I didn’t. I was too aroused, and continued to grind myself against him. He took hold of my hips and raised me slightly so that I could no longer get any friction. I whined in disappointment.

 “Please, master!” I wailed, knowing how he loved it when I begged. “I need to come! Please, please make me come!”

 Slowly, so slowly, Loki’s right hand slid from my hip to my thigh and then between my legs. I moaned with pleasure as his fingers fondled me, and shuddered as he slipped two of them inside me. He began thrusting them in and out, pressing his thumb to my clit as he did so. “Is this what you want, my pet?” he asked.

 “Yes, master, oh yes!”

 I was seconds away from orgasm when Loki abruptly withdrew his fingers. “No!” I cried desperately, grabbing his wrist and trying to force his hand back between my legs. “Please! Please, my king, my god, let me finish, let me come ...”

 “Hush, my pet,” Loki purred, easily resisting my efforts to get his fingers back where I needed them. Instead, he put them in his mouth and sucked off my juices. I could almost have wept with wanting. Loki smirked. “Don’t worry, my little mortal minion,” he said, “I’m going to give you what you need. It would be most unseemly of a god to deny his worshipper something she craves so deeply, something only he can give her.”

 He wrapped his left arm around my waist and lifted me as though I was as light as air – which I supposed I was, to his godly strength. With his right arm he guided my legs to either side of him, then pulled me down roughly, impaling me on his erect cock. I shrieked with the suddenness of it, then leaned into him, hands on his shoulders, and started to ride him, hard and fast. “Loki!” I called out. “Oh, Loki, that’s so, so good ...”

 “Come for me,” he whispered. “Your god demands it.”

 I obeyed, saying his name over and over again as climax tore through me. I writhed against him, every muscle in my body trembling and clenching in orgasmic bliss. When at last the waves of ecstasy ebbed, I relaxed against him, my head falling limply forward onto his shoulder. “Thank you, master,” I gasped breathlessly.

 Loki took a handful of my hair and pulled my head back so that I was looking at him. “Don’t thank me yet,” he said with a wicked grin. “Your god has a few more demands ...”


	6. Chapter 6

 The next morning, we were roused just after dawn by somebody thumping on the door with such force I was surprised it didn’t burst open. My suspicions as to the culprit were immediately confirmed when Thor’s cheerful bellow followed the insistent knocking: “Wake up, brother! It’s time to go to work!”

 “Ugh!” I grumbled sleepily, pulling a pillow over my head. “Hasn’t he ever heard of an indoor voice?”

 “Hardly,” Loki replied. “Frankly, we’re lucky he bothered announcing himself – he usually just barges in.”

 “Go away, Thor!” I shouted, emerging from under the pillow. I was not exactly a morning person, and waking up snuggled against Loki’s naked body gave me even less incentive to get out of bed. We often made love before rising, and right now I could feel Loki’s cool, hard length against my thigh, making me eager for an action replay of the night before.

 “My apologies if I interrupted ... anything,” Thor called, sounding amused rather than sorry, “but we really do need to get started. People are depending on us.”

 “Loki, can’t you make him disappear now you’ve got your magic back?” I asked my lover, only half joking.

 Loki chuckled. “Much as I would love to indulge you,” he said, “unfortunately, he’s right. We have disappearances to investigate that have nothing to do with me.”

 “Can’t we stay in bed just a bit longer?” I wheedled, reaching for his cock. He caught hold of my hand as my fingers brushed against him and, with a reluctant expression, pulled it away.

 “I’m afraid not,” he said, “but how about this? Get up now, and I’ll make it up to you later.” He gave me his best roguish grin.

 I shivered with anticipation. “Promises, promises,” I said.

 

 After a breakfast of fruit and some sort of pastry similar to a croissant, all seven of us gathered outside the inn to begin our investigation. Hogun showed us around the village, pointing out where people had vanished in the middle of tasks, indicating the lack of tracks or signs of battle, and telling us that nothing had been taken with them except the clothes on their backs.

 “My aunt and uncle lived here,” he concluded, stopping outside one of the houses. “I had heard of vanishings occurring in distant villages for a few months beforehand, but I’m sorry to say I dismissed them as tales told by drunken travellers in inns until I learned it had happened here.” He fell silent, guilt written across his face.

 “You were not here when it happened?” asked Loki.

 “No,” replied Hogun, “when it happens, everyone vanishes – every person, and every animal, who was in the settlement or a short distance beyond it. My home is in another town, far away. My cousin, who had been living on Asgard, came here to visit her parents and discovered the village like this. She came to me with the news.”

 “Hmm,” said Loki thoughtfully. He closed his eyes and extended his hands, evidently trying to feel the magical residue he had sensed when we arrived. “This is old magic,” he said, “as old as Asgard’s, at least.”

 “But not of Asgard?” said Thor.

 “No. Not of Asgard or Vanaheim or any of the Nine Realms. This is a kind of magic I’ve never experienced before. Powerful, and ... unpleasant.”

 “Unpleasant in what way?” said Sif, sounding somewhat sceptical.

 Loki ignored her tone and answered: “I’m not sure. It just feels ... bad.” He walked forward a few steps, his face tense with attentiveness, and turned slowly in a circle. He did this twice before he came to a halt, opened his eyes, and said with certainty: “It came from that direction.” He pointed towards the mountains that dominated the horizon to the north.

 “Now that you mention it,” said Hogun, “I recall that the first incidents happened close to the mountains. There was talk about a curse from the ancient city. It was dismissed as nonsense, of course.” He stopped and then added darkly: “At first.”

 When nobody else said anything, I ventured to ask: “What ancient city?”

 “In the mountains,” said Hogun, leaving me not much better informed.

 Loki, coming back over to me, explained: “The Vanir – that’s the people of Vanaheim – used to live in great cities, similar to those of Asgard, which were built into the sides of mountains. The one in the mountains to the north there was once Vanaheim’s capital. A long time ago, the Vanir became weary of the hustle and bustle, and of having technology do everything for them, so they returned to a rural way of life in the countryside. They left the cities to fall into ruin, and settled instead in small farming communities like this one.”

 “So no-one lives in that city any more?” I said.

 “No. They have all been abandoned for thousands of years,” said Loki. “Naturally, there are legends about them that have grown up over time – that they are haunted, that any who venture there will die, and so on.”

 I looked up at him. “We’re going to have to go there, aren’t we?” I said.

 “I think so, yes.”

 

 We set off at once, riding north at a steady pace. We intended to stop at any town or village we encountered to search for clues, but our ultimate destination was the ancient capital city, where Loki was sure the source of the vanishing magic dwelled. He couldn’t say exactly what that source was, but I could tell it made him uneasy.

 We saw no wildlife for about half a mile beyond the village. As Hogun had said, it seemed that the magic’s influence extended a little way past the boundaries of settlements, which it presumably focused on because of the concentration of living things there. Once the area of influence was behind us, we began to see animals here and there. Some of these, like deer and rabbits, would have looked perfectly at home on Earth. Others I did not recognise at all. At one point I caught a glimpse of something that resembled a dragon disappearing into a stand of trees.

 We halted for a brief rest when the sun was at its highest. Whilst the horses grazed, we ate a frugal lunch of bread, cheese and dried meat. The meat was unfamiliar to me, though tasty enough, and I was about to ask Loki what it was when I remembered the bilgesnipe, and decided I’d rather not know.

 After that we rode until evening, when we entered another region apparently devoid of life. Soon after we came upon a deserted town, which would be a convenient place to spend the night. As we searched the streets for an inn in which to sleep, I noticed a light shining from a window in one of the houses and drew the others’ attention to it. “Someone might be in there,” I suggested. “Someone ... left behind.”

 “No-one gets left behind,” said Hogun gloomily.

 “A lamp was probably left burning when the vanishing occurred,” Thor agreed.

 “It’s worth checking, though, isn’t it?” said Loki, turning Dark Prince towards the house. Thor shrugged, and we all followed Loki.

 Thor dismounted and banged loudly on the door. “Hello?” he yelled. “Is anyone in there?”

 There was a shuffling sound from within, as of someone moving about, and a male voice responded nervously: “Who’s there?”

 “Prince Thor of Asgard and his entourage,” said Thor grandly.

 The door opened a crack and an eye peeped through. The person seemed to recognise Thor and opened the door fully, an expression of relief on his face. “Thank goodness someone’s come at last,” he said. “I haven’t seen anyone in weeks. I was afraid you were ... well, I don’t know what.”

 “Can you tell us what happened here?” Thor wanted to know.

 “How about he shows us where the inn is, first?” said Volstagg. “I’m ravenous, and why stand here talking in the street when we could be sitting round a table with a mug of ale and a hearty feast?”

 Fandral laughed. “My rotund friend here has a point,” he said. “Do give us your name, good sir, and accompany us to the nearest inn to regale us with your adventures.”

 “Er ... very well,” said the Vanir, stepping out of the house and glancing warily around him. “My name is Ivar. The inn is that way.” He pointed.

 Thor climbed back onto Warrior and pulled Ivar up behind him, the huge stallion easily bearing the extra weight, and we all headed for the inn. Once there, we stabled our horses and prepared a quick but nourishing meal (Volstagg served himself four times as much food as anyone else and ate it all twice as quickly). Immediate needs taken care of, Thor told Ivar of our mission and requested that he tell us his story.

 “There isn’t much to tell,” he said. “The reason I’m still here is simply that I was out hunting in the woods when the vanishing happened. I came home to find the town empty. My family, my friends, my whole community, just ... gone.”

 “And that’s it?” said Thor, rather crestfallen. “There’s nothing else you can tell us?”

 Ivar shook his head.

 “Think carefully,” said Loki, fixing him with a piercing gaze. “Did you notice anything unusual in the time leading up to the vanishing? Anything at all?”

 Ivar screwed up his face as he thought hard, tapping his chin with one finger. “Just one thing,” he said at length. “For a couple of weeks before it happened, people seemed to be ... on edge. There was a lot of arguing, even fighting. Even the most mild-mannered characters lost their tempers. I noticed it particularly because my sister and her husband, who never quarrel, had a terrible row that resulted in her coming to stay with me for a few days.”

 Loki blinked slowly, and sat back in his chair, looking thoughtful. “Yes,” he murmured to himself, “that fits.”

 “What is it, Loki?” I asked him.

 “You know I said the magic felt bad, unpleasant?” he replied. I nodded, and he continued: “I realize now that it feels like discord, like anger. Like hate. It is a kind of sorcery designed to bring out the worst in people – and animals, I suppose – and turn them against each other.”

 “For what purpose?” said Thor.

 “Perhaps to start a war?” Sif guessed.

 “That doesn’t make sense,” said Fandral. “What would be the point of making people kill each other if they were just going to disappear anyway?”

 “I don’t know,” Loki confessed, “I just know that whatever entity is using this magic, it wants to cause ill-feeling in people before it vanishes them.”

 Soon after this, we retired for the night, Ivar returning to his home and the rest of us taking rooms at the inn. I winced as I limped up the stairs, aching from the long day in the saddle. I’d forgotten how much riding made you hurt when you weren’t accustomed to it. When Loki and I selected a room, I flopped onto the bed with a groan.

 “Are you in pain?” queried Loki, concerned.

 “Just muscle cramps,” I said. “I’m not used to riding all day.”

 “Let me help you with that,” said Loki, flicking a hand and making both his and my own clothes disappear. “Lie on your front, and I will give you a massage.”

 I did as he said, and sighed as Loki’s strong, long-fingered hands began running all over my body. It felt like he was touching me everywhere at once. It was several minutes before the sensations fully registered – it felt like I was being touched everywhere because there were not two hands on me, but four!

 Startled, I turned over, to be met with a most wondrous sight. Two Lokis, alike in every detail, looked down at me, grinning identical grins. “I wondered how long it would take you to notice,” said the one on the right – the original Loki, I thought, as that’s where he’d been sitting before the second one appeared.

 “What ... what ...?” I trailed off, staring.

 “He’s a double,” said Loki, indicating his doppelganger. “A copy. It’s something I can do with my magic.”

 I recalled an incident that had occurred during the time I spent with him in Asgard’s dungeons. Frigga had conjured an image of herself in his cell in order to talk to him without being physically present. This must be the same sort of thing. “Like that image your mother used to talk to you in your cell?” I said. “What did you call it? A simil-something.”

 “Simulacrum,” Loki supplied. “And no, not exactly. Simulacra are just illusions. They have no substance, and dissolve if touched. My friend here is as solid as I am, and I can feel what he feels.”

 “Wow!” I said softly, and reached out to touch the double. I ran my fingers over his chest and down his stomach, finally grasping his erect cock. Both Lokis closed their eyes and quivered. It was incredible.

 “I did say I’d make it up to you when I made you get out of bed this morning, didn’t I?” said Loki. Arousal spread through me as I imagined all the fun I could have with two of him. “Now, why don’t you suck him? I’d like to see how we look,” Loki went on.

 The double rose and stood to one side of the bed, beckoning to me. “On your knees, mortal,” he ordered, speaking for the first time. His voice was indistinguishable from the original Loki’s. I scrambled off the bed and kneeled before him, taking his length eagerly into my mouth. The two of them moaned in unison, which in turn drew a moan from me.

 “Oh, you look so good with my cock in your mouth,” purred Loki.

 I paused long enough to look up at him and ask: “And you can feel this? Like I’m doing it to you?”

 “You _are_ doing it to me,” said Loki, smirking. “He’s me. But to answer your question, I don’t feel it quite so intensely as if you were doing it to me directly, but I can feel it well enough.”

 I resumed my sucking, revelling in hearing the sounds resulting from my actions being doubled as both Lokis expressed their pleasure. After a while, the cock was withdrawn from my mouth as the original Loki said: “My turn.”

 Just the thought of them taking turns with me was almost enough to make me fall apart. I whimpered lustfully as the double picked me up and returned me to the bed, positioning me on my hands and knees. I was facing Loki, who wasted no time in guiding his cock into my mouth. I jumped in surprise (and enjoyment) as the double, behind me, abruptly inserted a finger into my sex. “She’s positively drenched,” he announced.

 Desperate for more, I released Loki’s cock and, looking back over my shoulder, said: “How about you put that silver tongue of yours to good use and make me even wetter?”

 I received a stinging smack across the buttocks for my impudence, which made me squeal. Loki rarely spanked me, and I suddenly wondered if the double had done it of his own volition. Did he have any autonomy, or did Loki control him entirely? I didn’t get a chance to ask, as Loki grabbed me by the hair and, twisting my head back around, shoved his cock back into my mouth. “Remember to whom you speak,” he said imperiously. “He is your king, as I am. We are your masters, and we will do as we please with you, our pet.”

 I trembled with excitement at his words, and moments later almost choked on his cock as the double, despite my impertinence, followed my suggestion, slipping his tongue between my folds and licking at my entrance.

 They both stopped what they were doing at the same instant. I found myself flipped onto my back and pulled up between Loki’s legs, leaning against his chest as he reclined against the headboard. Hooking his arms beneath my knees, he spread my legs wide apart and held them there as his double lowered his face between my thighs. His skilful tongue worked my clit, and at the same time he eased two fingers into me, sliding them in and out.

 “Oh God,” I gasped, “that feels fantastic, my king ... my kings.”

 “Are you going to be a good girl and come for us?” said Loki, lowering his head and nipping at my neck.

 “Yes!” I hissed, writhing helplessly in his clutches as the double moved his fingers faster. I was almost there already.

 “Good,” Loki growled, “we want you nice and prepared to take both our cocks.”

 His words tipped me over the edge. My whole body jerked as I climaxed hard, moaning Loki’s name. The double removed his fingers from me and hungrily lapped up my juices. I was still shuddering with the aftershocks when he sat up and pushed his cock into me. I was given no time to recover – he immediately set a punishing rhythm, pounding relentlessly into my still-spasming passage.

 Pinned between the two Lokis, I was quickly forced to a second orgasm, and the double joined me in ecstasy, spilling his seed deep inside me as I screamed and clawed at his back. When he withdrew, Loki at once hoisted me up and shifted beneath me before lowering me back down, straight onto his throbbing cock. I cried out, shaking, as he buried himself inside me. I was powerless to resist, to respond, to do anything but take it as he gripped my hips and began manoeuvring me up and down his hardness.

 “Please, master,” I panted, “no more ... I can’t ...”

 “You can,” said the double with a fiendish grin, “and you will.” As he spoke he put a hand between my legs and rubbed his fingertips gently over my clit, which by now was hyper-sensitive. I shrieked in a mixture of rapture, fatigue and sheer astonishment as the two of them drove me to another climax. I saw stars, and briefly zoned out, unaware of where I was or what was happening, lost in a blissful daze.

 I came back to myself in time to feel Loki coming. Then, breathing heavily, he slumped back against the pillows with me, limp and exhausted, still on top of him. He wrapped his arms around me and rolled us onto our sides, so that he was spooning me. The double seemed to have disappeared.

 I wanted to say something, but wasn’t quite capable of forming a coherent sentence yet. I settled for making a contented humming noise in my throat.

 “Not thinking about those sore muscles now, are you?” said Loki smugly.


	7. Chapter 7

 Five days later, we passed the last village we would come to before reaching the mountains. As one of the first to experience a vanishing, it had been empty for some months and was in a worse state of disrepair than the others we’d seen. We were now into the untamed wilderness, but it was a wilderness without the normal wild animals – it seemed that all the wildlife between the mountains and the village had been vanished before the sorcery moved on to Vanir-inhabited areas.

 It soon became clear that we would not reach the mountains before nightfall and that, for the first time, we would be forced to sleep in the open rather than staying at an inn. We had brought tents with us from Asgard, carried rolled up across the backs of the horses, and as dusk fell we set about making camp.

 Whilst Thor, Sif and the Warriors Three each had a tent of their own, Loki and I would of course be sharing. Loki lifted our tent off Dark Prince’s back, placed it on the ground, and erected it with a wave of his hand. Then he stood back and watched for a while as the others laboriously began constructing their shelters. It wasn’t until they noticed me giggling that they realized we were already done, and thought to ask Loki for magical help with their tents. He obliged.

 This done, Fandral and I saw to the horses, removing their harness and tying them to trees with long leads so that they could graze or lie down if they wished. Thor and Sif collected firewood while Loki made a fire-pit (again using magic), and Volstagg and Hogun started preparing a meal.

 We sat around the fire eating and talking for an hour or two, then doused the flames and retired to our respective tents. Loki had conjured a small light inside ours so we wouldn’t have to scramble about in the dark. It bathed the interior in a dim glow that was just enough to see by. I removed my boots and crawled under the blankets, intending to get undressed beneath them for warmth, but Loki saved me the trouble by making my clothes, and his own, disappear with a flick of his fingers.

 I pressed myself eagerly against his naked body, slinging a leg over his hip and grinding myself against him. “I want you,” I said in a low voice.

 “You are insatiable,” said Loki in mock disbelief.

 “It’s your fault,” I replied, “you’re irresistible.”

 Loki chuckled softly. “Do you really want me to take you with five other people so close by?” he asked. “We’re not at an inn now, you know. They’d be bound to hear us. Perhaps we should abstain tonight.”

 He wasn’t serious, I knew. He was teasing me as he so loved to do. He would give me what I wanted – it was just a matter of when.

 “But I _want_ you,” I said petulantly, playing along, and pouted as I rubbed my moist slit against his already-hard length.

 “Do you think you can be quiet?” said Loki, sliding a hand between my legs and brushing his fingers lightly over my sex.

 “Uh ... I can try,” I said, biting back a moan as he slipped a finger inside me.

 “You know that if you can’t, my brother and his cronies will hear you coming,” Loki reminded me.

 I whimpered. There was a part of me that wanted them to hear, a part of me that was aroused by the thought of them knowing what Loki was doing to me only feet away from them.

 “You like that?” Loki purred. I wasn’t sure if he meant what he was doing with his finger or the suggestion of being overheard. It didn’t really matter. The answer was yes either way.

 “Yes, Loki,” I hissed.

 Loki sat up and kneeled between my legs. His free hand stroked its way down my body and a fingertip found my clit. As he began to rub it he eased a second finger inside me, moving both in and out in a smooth, steady rhythm. “Does that feel good?” he asked, though he knew full well.

 “Oh God, Loki, yes!” I gasped. I was getting close already, squirming beneath the delightful assault of his fingers, moans of pleasure escaping me despite my efforts to hold them back. Loki brought me to the brink of climax, then abruptly pulled his hands away.

 “Loki!” I groaned. “Loki, please ...”

 “What?” said Loki. “You’re going to have to tell me what you want, my pet.”

 “I want to come,” I whispered fiercely.

 “I’m sorry?” Loki cocked his head, pretending not to have heard. “You’ll have to speak up.”

 “I want to come!” I said more loudly, feeling my cheeks flush.

 “Ah,” said Loki. “Well, in that case, I’m afraid you’re going to have to beg.”

 “Please make me come, Loki,” I grated from between gritted teeth. “Please, I need you. I need your cock.”

 “Not sure I heard that,” Loki lied.

 I lost patience then. I was so desperate for him that I no longer cared if Thor and the others heard. “Fuck me, Loki!” I pleaded, almost shouting. “I want your cock! I want it inside me ’til I come! Give it to me, Loki, give me every inch! _Please_ fuck me!”

 “There, that wasn’t so difficult, was it?” said Loki. He pushed my legs further apart and guided his cock between them, seeking entrance. He slid into me easily – I was hot and wet, and more than ready for him – and began to thrust slowly in and out, holding my hips tightly. I seized his forearms and tugged on them, trying to pull him down on top of me, but he refused to budge. “I don’t want you smothering your cries against me,” he explained, grinning wickedly. “I want to hear every noise you make as I fuck you.”

 “But ... but ... the others,” I panted. “They’ll hear too ...”

 “You love it, you little wench,” said Loki silkily, “don’t pretend you don’t. You want them to hear you being taken by the god of mischief. It turns you on to have them know who’s giving you pleasure. Doesn’t it?”

 I keened lustfully as I acknowledged to myself that every word he said was true. “Yes, Loki,” I confessed. “Fuck me harder ... please ...”

 Loki did as I asked, speeding up his thrusts, pounding into me deliciously fast and moving one hand to caress my clit. “You love having my cock inside you, don’t you?” he growled. I trembled with the intensity of my arousal – I loved it when he talked to me like this while he took me. He was so strong, so masterful, dominating me so completely … yet he made me feel so secure, so cared for. So loved.

 “Oh yes! It feels so good!” I sighed. “Oh, Loki!”

 “Louder!” he commanded. “I want my brother and his friends to know how hard you’re being fucked.”

 “Loki! Loki! Loki!” I cried out.

 “That’s right, scream my name. Let everyone on Vanaheim know how much you want my cock.”

 “Oh God, Loki ... your cock feels amazing!” I yelled. “Fuck me, Loki! Fuck me and fill me with your seed!”

 “Oh … that’s it … you bad girl,” Loki snarled, his breathing growing rapidly heavier, his thrusts harder still. “You’re going ... to take … my come ...”

 “Yes, Loki, yes! Give it to me! Please!”

 Every muscle in my body, particularly in my nether regions, was tensing as my orgasm approached. I pushed towards Loki, grinding my hips against his, matching him stroke for stroke. So in tune with each other were we, moving so perfectly in time, that it no longer felt like we were two separate people – more like two halves of a single whole, coming together to form something greater than either one of us.

 And then, almost simultaneously, we reached the peak. Loki groaned and drove himself deep, deep inside me. Gazing up into those piercing, ice-blue eyes of his, I saw his face register his intense pleasure as jet after jet of his cool seed spurted into me. Sight and feeling combined sent me writhing in overwhelming ecstasy as climax took me, my internal muscles contracting, squeezing him tight within me. I screamed his name at the top of my voice, revelling in the thought that the others were sure to hear and know that Loki was having his way with me, and how much I was enjoying it.

 As the waves of bliss slowly receded, Loki lowered himself onto me, knowing how I liked to feel his weight on me. I wrapped my arms around him and held him. For a few minutes I simply basked in the afterglow of our passion, my mind a haze of satisfaction. Then, gradually, my thoughts cleared and I began to think about the fact that we’d been overheard by Thor and the rest. The idea of it had turned me on while in the moment, but now I had to confront the reality of it. How was I going to face them tomorrow, knowing what they’d heard? It would be so humiliating!

 “Loki,” I whispered, “do you really not care that your brother and his friends just heard all that? Because I don’t think I’ll ever be able to look any of them in the eye again.”

 Loki laughed, and propped himself up on one elbow so he could look down at me. “Don’t worry, my love,” he said, “no-one heard anything.”

 “Er ... what?” I said. “We were pretty loud, Loki. At least, I was.”

 “I cast a shielding spell before we started,” Loki said. “It blocks all sound.”

 I gaped at him. “You cast a spell?” I choked out. “And you didn’t tell me? You let me think that ...?”

 “Yes,” Loki said, grinning broadly.

 “You absolute bastard,” I said, and kissed him.

 

 We were woken shortly after dawn by someone – probably Volstagg – stumbling around outside as they tried to light the fire. I’d become used to the early starts over the last few days, but I still wasn’t happy about it, and burrowed further under the blankets as I tried to ignore the clamour.

 “Come on out,” Loki said, adding persuasively: “I have something for you.”

 “I didn’t think there was time for that,” I said, grabbing playfully at his cock.

 “Not _that_ ,” said Loki with feigned exasperation, though he was unable to cover his amused huff.

 “Then what?”

 “Come out and see.”

 Reluctant, but curious, I poked my head out from beneath the blankets. Loki was sitting up, holding out a silver pendant on a chain. It was shaped like the three-lobed triangular symbol of Asgard which I had seen all over the place there. “It’s beautiful,” I said, taking it and cradling it in my hands.

 “Do you ... accept it?” asked Loki. He sounded oddly hesitant, even nervous. I didn’t know why he would be so worried about me not accepting a gift from him, or why he might think I wouldn’t accept it in the first place.

 “Well, of course,” I said, fastening the chain around my neck. “Thank you, Loki.”

 Loki beamed. With a wave of his hand, he dressed us, and together we emerged from the tent. As had become the norm, everyone else was up before us and getting breakfast ready. Thor looked up as we walked towards them, tutting loudly. “Late to rise again, brother,” he chided jokingly. “Whatever have you two been ...?” He stopped suddenly as he caught sight of the pendant around my neck. His eyes widened slightly, and he shot a look at Loki, who merely smiled. The others came over to see what had cut Thor off mid-sentence. Like him, they all stared at the pendant. Then Sif spoke to me.

 “Did _he_ give you that?” she asked, pointing to Loki and then to the pendant.

 “Of course,” I said, “who else would have?”

 “And you accepted it?” said Hogun.

 “Of course,” I said again. “Why wouldn’t I?”

 “Because he’s _Loki_ ,” said Volstagg, as though nothing more needed to be said.

 I was mystified. Did they think that Loki had cursed the pendant? Maybe that it was a magical means of controlling me? “Are you saying I shouldn’t accept a gift from the person I love?” I said, a little more sharply than I’d intended.

 “Perhaps only that you should be more careful about to whom you choose to give your heart,” said Fandral.

 “You don’t choose love,” I replied, “it chooses you. We can’t decide who we fall in love with. Can we?” I looked at Sif as I said the last part. She glanced quickly at Thor, blushed slightly, and turned away.

 “That is true,” she admitted.

 “Well, let us not dwell on such matters now,” said Thor briskly, completely missing Sif’s discomfiture. “We must concentrate on our mission. I’m not saying I’m not pleased, brother, but ... well, I imagine Father will have something to say about this.”

 “He can say what he likes,” Loki retorted, “it makes no difference to me.”

 This made me wonder if the pendant was some sort of heirloom, something Odin would not want given to a mortal. That wouldn’t surprise me. If that was the case, I thought, I would simply remind him that mortal lifespans were nothing to Asgardian ones, and he would have it back again soon enough, by his reckoning.


	8. Chapter 8

 Another day of travel brought us to an ancient road, several hundred feet wide and paved with multi-coloured stone. It had obviously once been a great thoroughfare leading into the capital city. Now, the heavy slabs were webbed with cracks and had profuse plant material growing through them. We were clearly the first people to use it in centuries as we followed its winding ascent up into the craggy heights above.

 The closer we got to the abandoned city in the peaks, the more uncomfortable Loki became. He was not nervous, exactly, but it was plain his senses were being plagued by magical energy. He was restless and agitated, and often started as though at a sound no-one else could hear.

 “Are you alright, Loki?” I asked him worriedly.

 “It’s much stronger here,” he replied, raking a hand through his hair in aggravation. “I can feel the magic thrumming through my body all the time. It’s not just residue any more. It’s ... it’s _alive_.”

 “You mean we are getting close to the source?” queried Thor.

 “Undoubtedly,” was Loki’s response. “Whoever or whatever the sorcerer is, he or she or it is somewhere in the city above us.”

 

 We were a full day on the road before we entered the city itself. Though the buildings were in ruins, it was easy to see how magnificent they had once been – the architecture was like nothing ever seen on Earth, seeming to defy the laws of physics with its towering spires, swooping bridges, and even floating platforms. The place must have been a truly astonishing sight in its glory days.

 Hogun was noticeably moved by the spectacle. “These are the homes of my ancestors,” he murmured, gazing about him. “I am the first Vanir to set foot here in millennia.”

 It occurred to me that I was probably the first mortal ever to set foot there. An exciting thought, but also a frightening one.

 Loki led us unerringly towards the epicentre of the magic, which tugged constantly at his awareness. We spent two nights in the city. Some of the buildings were still structurally sound, if shadows of their former selves, and we slept in these amid the archaic splendour.

 At last, on the third day, we reached the heart of the city. Here, set in the middle of a vast square that was the hub of four great roads leading in from each point of the compass, stood a palace so immense it was almost a city in itself. “This is the royal citadel,” Hogun informed us in an awed voice. “I learned about it in my youth. The royal family once lived here.”

 A sudden, strange feeling of uneasiness came over me, and I looked at Loki to see if he felt it too. He was sitting rigidly in his saddle, muscles locked, staring at the citadel with something like horror on his face. “It is here,” he hissed.

 “The source of the vanishing magic?” said Sif, drawing her staff and flicking it to extend the blades.

 Loki nodded. “The sorcerer is within,” he said, “deep within ... Hogun, are there catacombs beneath this structure? Underground treasure vaults, perhaps?”

 “Yes,” said Hogun. “Apparently the citadel was built on this site because below it lies a network of caves running through the mountain’s belly. They were used as storage vaults, and also as a means of escape for the royals should the city ever be overrun by enemies. Are you saying that’s where the sorcerer is?”

 “Yes. Below ground, surrounded by rock. There is a huge amount of negative energy there. I think ... I think the sorcerer is feeding off it.”

 “That doesn’t sound good,” said Thor.

 “Nice understatement, brother,” Loki answered drily.

 “Well, what are we waiting for?” Sif demanded. “Let’s get in there!” She slashed her staff through the air a few times as though dismembering invisible foes.

 “For Asgard!” bellowed Volstagg, hoisting the enormous, double-headed axe he normally carried strapped across his back.

 “Wait a minute,” I said, “what about the horses? We can’t take them underground with us, can we?”

 There was a moment’s silence before Fandral said: “There’s bound to be a stable we can leave them in. A royal household must have had stables.”

 “We can’t just dump them in a stable,” I said, “we don’t know how long we’re going to be down there. They could starve to death.”

 “Perhaps you would like to stay behind and take care of them?” suggested Sif. “After all, this really is too dangerous a venture for mortals.”

 Loki glared at her and was about to deliver a biting retort when Thor said: “It’s simple. We just ask Heimdall to take them home.”

 Nobody spoke while we all wondered why we hadn’t thought of that. Loki in particular seemed somewhat perturbed that Thor had been the one to come up with this solution. Eventually he cleared his throat and said: “Good idea, brother. Let us take what we need from our saddle-bags and call him.”

 We dismounted and crammed as much food and water as we could carry into packs, before Thor looked up at the sky and yelled: “Heimdall! We have need of you! Please send the Bifrost to collect our horses!”

 The sky rumbled. I patted Rusty one last time and stepped back. Seconds later the blazing beam of the Bifrost enveloped her, Dark Prince and the others, and they were gone.

 Thor hefted Mjolnir and cried: “Onward, friends!”

 Fandral drew his sword and Hogun his spiked mace, and together Thor, Sif and the Warriors Three marched fearlessly towards the citadel. Loki and I followed behind them at a more sedate pace, neither of us feeling any need for their sort of bravado. I noticed that Loki had no weapons aside from a dagger tucked into his belt. As he saw me glance at it, he pulled it free and handed it to me. “Just in case,” he said.

 “But what about you?” I asked.

 “I have this,” said Loki, lifting a hand and conjuring a green flame in his palm. He flung it at a nearby stone column, which exploded, making Thor and his fellows jump. Loki laughed, and, when Thor glowered at him, said innocently: “Sorry, brother. Just practicing.”

 I ducked my head to hide my smile, and shoved the dagger through my own belt, hoping I wouldn’t have need of it.

 We entered the citadel cautiously, but it soon became clear that it was as deserted as every other building, at least on the surface. We searched for some time before finding a winding staircase leading down into the caverns that lay below. Beyond the first turn of the stairs, it was pitch black. Loki summoned a small globe of light that floated along just in front of us, illuminating our path.

 The journey into the depths took several hours. Hogun said he thought the staircase must originally have moved, transporting people downward much more quickly. When at last we reached the bottom, we were confronted with a grand, arching doorway carved directly out of the rock of the mountainside. It had once sealed the entrance to the caves with a pair of tremendously thick metal doors, but these had rusted away to mere remnants hanging from the hinges. Thor had only to nudge them with Mjolnir and they collapsed into millions of tiny fragments. There was no longer anything beyond them to protect – everything worth taking had been removed when the Vanir left.

 We now crossed into the cave system itself. It was bitterly cold and, at least from my point of view, extremely creepy. I pressed myself closely to Loki’s side as we walked, and he put a comforting arm around my shoulders. He and I were now at the front of the party, since he was the one who could sense the magic and thus the direction we must take in the maze of chambers and tunnels. I hoped he remembered the way back, because I certainly couldn’t.

 The passage of time was difficult to judge down here. We ate when we were hungry and rested when we felt like it, and stopped for the ‘night’ whenever we were tired enough, spreading our blankets on the bare rock floor to sleep. Loki assured us we were drawing closer to the source of the magic – he could feel it buzzing continually at the edges of his consciousness, ‘like an itch you can’t scratch,’ as he put it.

 I reckoned we travelled like this for around three days, though it seemed like much longer. We passed through cave after empty cave with no sign of anything unusual, and had become so used to this that, on the fourth day, it came as a considerable shock when we were suddenly confronted with people.

 Loki and I emerged from a narrow passageway into a gigantic cavern to be met with the sight of a crowd of people – hundreds, if not thousands, of them, filling the cave from end to end. We halted so abruptly that Thor, behind us, walked into me, knocking me away from Loki and into the nearest person.

 I cried out in alarm as I stumbled into him – he was as cold and hard as stone. That was when I realized that none of the people were moving, and there was no sound but the distant dripping of water and Thor’s muttered apologies. They weren’t people after all. The cave was full of statues – incredibly realistic, detailed statues in full colour. As I looked more closely, I saw that there were animal statues too, scattered among the people. The people themselves appeared to be Vanir.

 “What’s all this, Hogun?” Fandral asked in a low voice. “Did your ancient royals keep an army of statues down here?”

 “Not that I’ve ever heard of,” Hogun replied. “Why would they?”

 “Pretty odd statues, aren’t they?” remarked Volstagg, prodding one of them in the forehead with a finger. “Why would anyone make statues in all these strange poses?”

 He was right. The statues were not in the standard heroic postures one might expect, and nor were they statues only of warriors or royalty. Males, females and children of every age and social class were depicted, doing every task imaginable. The animals, too, were hugely varied – not just noble steeds and heraldic beasts, but every kind of farmyard and wild creature, some exotic to my eyes. As I advanced further into the cave, I tripped on a small one and, looking down, saw that it was a life-size replica of a rat. Who made statues of rats?

 “Stop!” said Loki sharply, grabbing Thor’s wrist just as he was about to use Mjolnir to deliver an experimental tap to the statue of a little girl.

 “Why?” said Thor, startled by his tone.

 “Because they’re not statues,” said Loki.

 “What?” said Thor, bewildered. “Of course they are!”

 “No,” said Loki heavily, “they’re not. Haven’t you figured it out yet? These are the vanished! The people and animals who went missing!”

 We all stared at each other in a mixture of amazement and dismay. “But ... what happened to them?” I whispered. “Can you tell, Loki?”

 Loki closed his eyes and placed both hands on the little girl’s head, his brow furrowed in concentration. “They are in suspended animation,” he said. “The magic has frozen them like this while the sorcerer absorbs their negative energy. That’s why they were driven to behave antagonistically before they vanished – the sorcerer feeds off that negativity.”

 “They live, then?” questioned Sif.

 “For now,” said Loki ominously, opening his eyes and stepping away from the girl, “but eventually the life-force will be drained from them, and they will expire. That, I suspect, is why more people kept vanishing. The sorcerer needs to keep replenishing the supply.”

 “Indeed she does!” boomed a female voice out of nowhere.


	9. Chapter 9

 We all jumped violently at the sound of the voice, looking around for its source. A glimmer appeared in the air high above us and slowly coalesced into the form of a giant woman, some twenty feet tall. She wore a long black dress that billowed around her as though made of something insubstantial, like smoke. Her skin was white – not merely pale, but as white as snow – and her eyes, which seemed oversized in proportion to her face, were a vivid, poisonous green. There were no pupils in them. Her hair, or what passed for her hair, was a mass of sharp, black spikes sticking out of her head in all directions.

 Thor raised Mjolnir aggressively. “There’s no point,” said Loki as Thor twirled the hammer in readiness to launch it, “it’s an ...” Thor, ignoring him, threw Mjolnir at the apparition. It flew harmlessly through her and returned to Thor’s hand. “Illusion,” Loki finished.

 “She isn’t really here?” said Thor, somewhat embarrassed.

 “No, she’s somewhere deeper in the cave system.”

 “But she _is_ the sorcerer?”

 “I am much more than a _sorcerer_ ,” the woman roared. “I am Erida!”

 Loki, Thor and the others looked at each other blankly. The name clearly meant nothing to them. But it meant something to me. I knew it from somewhere. Though Norse mythology had always been my main focus, I had some interest in the mythology of other cultures too, and I recognised the name Erida from one of them. She was some lesser-known deity, I was sure.

 Erida was evidently enraged that her name had not immediately struck terror into our hearts. Her eyes flashed and tiny sparks of lightning crackled across her hair-spikes, while her dress flapped wildly around her as though in a strong wind. “I am the goddess of hatred!” she screeched.

 Of course! I remembered now – she was part of the Greek pantheon. When I paused to think about it, it made perfect sense that, if the Norse gods were actually powerful, advanced visitors from another world, so too were the gods of other civilisations like the Greeks, the Romans, the Egyptians. I couldn’t believe this hadn’t occurred to me until now. Somewhere out there were no doubt planets where dwelled Zeus and Hera, Mars and Venus, Osiris and Isis. This was a revelation that filled me with both wonder and dread.

 “We know of no such goddess,” Thor informed Erida.

 “Pitiful Asgardians,” she spat, “so limited in understanding, knowing only your Nine Realms! There are so many worlds you know nothing about! Even the mortal knows more than you.”

 I cringed as everyone turned to look at me. “Is that true?” said Loki curiously. “You know of her?”

 “She’s mentioned in Earth mythology,” I said. “She appears in the legends of one of our ancient cultures, the Greeks, the same way you appear in those of the Norse people. Her kind must have visited Earth long ago, just as you did.”

 “It is so,” Erida confirmed, “and I would have bled Earth dry aeons before you were born, puny mortal, were it not for the interference of that wretched Zeus. He banished me back to Olympus before I could sow my discord and begin my feast of hate.”

 “So this is what you do?” said Thor, trying to contain his anger. “You use magic to create strife among living things, making them seethe with hate so that you may feed off it?”

 “Yes. When the hate is potent enough, I transport my prey to a lair, like these caves, where I can keep them close and in suspended animation while I drain the negative energy, and the life-force, from them.”

 “Not any more, you don’t,” growled Thor. “You will release these people at once!”

 Erida laughed. “I will do no such thing. You have no power over me, oh mighty warrior.”

 Thor turned rather helplessly to Loki. “What do we do?” he asked him. “We _can_ do something, can’t we?”

 “We must find her physical body, of course,” said Sif, “and destroy it.”

 “That may be possible,” said Loki, “but even supposing it is, these people would all be dead by the time the deed was done. They don’t have long left.”

 “Then how do we save them?” said Hogun.

 “You should be more concerned about yourselves,” crowed Erida. “There’s nothing to stop me keeping you here with all my other victims, you know.”

 “Please,” said Thor, “let us bargain with you. I am the crown prince of Asgard. There must be something I can offer you in exchange for these people’s lives.”

 Erida’s eyes glowed even more brightly. “I cannot let these creatures go,” she said. “I must feed. But I _will_ make you a deal. A prince would make a fine addition to my feast, so if you, little prince, remain here in my thrall, I shall allow your companions to leave.”

 Thor opened his mouth to reply, and I knew he was going to agree to her terms. It was the honourable thing to do, and Thor always did the honourable thing. But before he could speak, Loki shouted at him: “No, Thor, you witless, noble great fool! You cannot!”

 “I must,” said Thor. “It is my duty.”

 “You said it yourself,” hissed Loki, “you are the crown prince of the Realm Eternal. The Nine Realms need you.” He looked up at the image of Erida and said calmly: “Erida, I too am a prince of Asgard. Take me instead.”

 I gasped in horror at his words. “Loki, no!” I cried.

 “That is acceptable,” said Erida.

 I waited for Thor’s protest, for him to insist that he be the one to make the sacrifice, but he said nothing. I glared round at him. “Aren’t you going to stop him?” I demanded furiously.

 “He is right,” said Thor sadly. “I wish it were not so, but I am the heir to the throne of Asgard. I am needed. He is doing as a younger prince should.”

 I glanced at Sif and the Warriors Three and was surprised to see them looking at Loki with a new respect. They, too, thought he was doing the right thing. I would get no help from them.

 “Loki, please don’t do this!” I implored him, throwing my arms around him.

 “I have to,” said Loki quietly. “I cannot let all of you be trapped here like these poor Vanir, and I cannot let Thor give himself when it should be me. And ... I need to do this. To make amends for my past. To prove to everyone I am that person no longer. You understand, don’t you?”

 “No!” I yelled. “No, I don’t understand! Please, Loki ...”

 “I have to,” he said again. “I’m sorry. You know I would not leave you if there were any other way.” He bent his head and kissed me. Tears spilled from my eyes and poured down my cheeks. “Let go now, my love,” he said gently, tugging at my arms where they encircled his waist.

 “No!” I sobbed, clinging to him even more tightly. “No! No! No!”

 Slowly, regretfully, Loki prised my arms from around him and, as I strained to grab onto him again, pushed me towards Thor. “Hold her,” he said. Thor’s hand closed like a vice on my upper arm. “I’m ready,” said Loki to Erida.

 The image of the goddess made a circular motion with her hands, and a large, pulsing oval of light materialised in front of Loki. “Step into the portal,” she said. “It will bring you to me. I want you by my side where I can keep close watch on you.”

 “Thank you, brother,” said Thor solemnly. “I will tell Mother and Father what you did. And if there’s anything we can do ...”

 “Take care of Louise for me,” said Loki, and walked towards the portal.

 I struggled madly against Thor’s grip, frantically trying to break free although I knew it was futile. “ _Loki_!” I screamed. He did not pause.

 Every step he took seemed to wrench my heart further from my body. I could not let him go. I _couldn’t_. He was part of me now, and I could not exist without him. If he was going to give himself to Erida, then I was going to go with him, one way or another.

 I lunged forward as if trying to reach Loki again, and then, as Thor resisted, I lurched back towards him. Not expecting the sudden change of direction, Thor stumbled. As he did so, I drew back my right fist and punched him as hard as I possibly could in the face. I knew I wasn’t physically capable of hurting him – he would barely feel the blow – but I was pinning all my hopes on catching him unawares and startling him into letting me go. I put everything I had into the punch, all my strength, all my desperation, all my love for Loki.

 It felt like I had punched a mountain. My knuckles throbbed with pain for an instant, then my entire arm went numb. But it worked. In complete shock, Thor released my arm and raised his hand to his face. It was an automatic reaction. I darted away from him and flung my arms around Loki just as he entered the portal.

 There was a blinding flash of light, and then ... nothing.


	10. Chapter 10

 Silence. Silence and darkness. I could hear nothing, see nothing. Then I realized my eyes were closed and slowly, nervously, opened them a crack. I still couldn’t see anything. I opened them fully. All was black, a thick, almost tangible blackness, not a hint of light anywhere. Was I blind? Was I dead? I started to panic slightly, then realized I was still holding Loki. He had turned so that I was pressed against his chest rather than his back, and his arms were around me. He was an anchor, reassuring me that no matter what, he was with me.

 I swallowed hard, gathered together the tattered remnants of my courage, and whispered: “Loki?”

 “Louise?” he whispered back.

 “What’s happening?” I asked.

 “I don’t know,” he replied. There was a slight tremor in his voice that gave away his concern, though I could tell he was trying to stay calm for me. “You shouldn’t have grabbed hold of me like that. I told you I didn’t want you putting yourself in danger because of me.”

 “And _I_ told _you_ ,” I said, “where you go, I go.”

 Loki sighed. “Can you see anything?” he said.

 “No. Can you?”

 “No.”

 “Are we ... are we dead?” I hardly dared ask the question, not sure I wanted to know the answer.

 “You are not dead,” said Erida’s voice. I froze, and felt Loki tense in my arms. “You have vanquished me,” she continued, sounding resigned to the fact. Then she added: “You are the first. The first in all the millennia I have lived.”

 “Not that I’m not glad,” said Loki, “but what exactly did we do?”

 “You found my weakness,” Erida responded. “You, Asgardian, were willing to give your life for your companions, and you, mortal, were willing to give yours for him. You fought me with the one weapon capable of conquering hatred.”

 “Er ... what’s that?” I asked timidly.

 “Love,” said Erida.

 No-one spoke for a long moment. Then Loki said: “So what do we do now?”

 “You go home,” Erida said bluntly.

 “And the people?” I said. “The people, and the animals, you were feeding off? What happens to them?”

 “They are already freed,” she said. “I can hold them no more, now that I am defeated. I must go back to Olympus.”

 There was a faint _pop_ , and Loki and I suddenly sensed that we were alone. Erida was gone.

 Loki lifted a hand away from my waist, and we were abruptly illuminated as he conjured his little floating globe of light. We were still in the cave where the vanished had been, only now it was as empty as the others we had passed through.

 Loki and I looked at each other. “Well,” he said pragmatically, “I suppose we’d better start back out of here.”

***

 When we emerged into the ancient citadel of the Vanir monarchy a few days later, there was no sign of anyone waiting for us. It seemed Thor and the others had returned to Asgard, though we had no idea what tale they would be telling there. How much did they know?

 Outside, in the courtyard, Loki called for Heimdall, and seconds later the Bifrost descended, gathering us up in its dazzling beam. As it set us down in Heimdall’s observatory, something large came whizzing towards us through the air. I flinched automatically before realizing it was Thor, using Mjolnir to fly.

 Beaming, he thumped unceremoniously down in front of us and engulfed the pair of us in a bone-crunching hug. “Thank the Norns!” he cried as he squeezed us. “I thought you both dead! I couldn’t believe it when Heimdall alerted me that he could see you again, and was bringing you home!”

 Unable to breathe, I let out a muffled squeak. Loki struggled to free himself from Thor’s embrace, muttering: “Get off, you big oaf!” He was trying to sound annoyed, but could not quite conceal his amusement.

 Thor reluctantly released us, and I heaved a deep breath. “ _Please_ try to remember your own strength, Thor!” I gasped.

 “Oh, my apologies!” said Thor remorsefully. “Did I hurt you?”

 “I’m fine,” I assured him, though not entirely sure he hadn’t cracked a couple of ribs in his enthusiasm. “And ... um ... I’m sorry I punched you. I had to make you let go ...”

 “I know why you did it,” said Thor. “All is forgiven.”

 As we began to walk across the Rainbow Bridge towards the palace, Loki asked Thor: “So Heimdall could not see that we were alive within the caves?”

 “No,” said Thor, “he could see none of us while we were down there – something to do with the influence of Erida’s magic. That’s why he couldn’t tell us where the vanished were. You were shrouded from his sight until just now, when he sent a message informing us he could see you in the Vanir citadel. Mother was so relieved – she was devastated to think she had lost you again.”

 “And Odin?” said Loki, attempting to appear casual. He liked to pretend he did not care what Odin thought, but I knew he did. Deep down, Odin was still the father he had never managed to impress and whose approval he still craved.

 “He is very proud of you,” said Thor sincerely. “He does love you, Loki, whatever you may think.”

 Loki said nothing, and to cover his embarrassment I spoke up. “What happened to you in the cave, Thor? When Loki and I went into the portal?”

 “We were plunged into darkness,” said Thor dramatically, “and the next thing we knew, we were standing outside the caves in the citadel – Sif, the Warriors Three and I, and all the vanished people and animals. They had ... come back to life, as it were. Hogun found his missing aunt and uncle among them.”

 “That’s good to hear. What happened then?”

 “They dispersed, heading back to their homes, and I requested Heimdall bring my friends and I back to Asgard, since we thought you two had not survived. What happened from your point of view?”

 I told him our side of the story then, and he was amazed to learn that love was the only way to overcome Erida. As I finished, Loki cleared his throat and asked Thor hesitantly: “Speaking of love, did you tell ... anyone ... about ...?” He stopped and gestured at the pendant around my neck.

 “No,” said Thor, “I did not think it was my place.”

 “Thank you,” said Loki, plainly relieved.

 “Loki,” I said, reminded of how Thor and the others had reacted when he’d given it to me, “do you want me to hide this pendant when we reach the palace?”

 “What?” said Loki. He seemed startled and hurt. “Why?”

 “Well, because everyone made such a fuss about you giving it to me,” I said. “I thought maybe it was something Odin wouldn’t want a mortal to have, a prized Asgardian antique or something ...”

 I trailed off at the expression on Loki’s face. He looked like he’d just been slapped. Thor glanced from him to me and back again, then burst out laughing. Loki glared at him for a moment, then shook his head and laughed too. “Sometimes I am as big a fool as my brother here,” he said ruefully. “Six months on Earth and still I forget that customs are different there.”

 “What are you talking about?” I said, baffled.

 “Never mind,” said Loki, “don’t worry about it. Tuck the pendant under your tunic for now. I’ve got some explaining to do before we let everyone see it.”

 “What do you _mean_?” I demanded, exasperated.

 But Loki would say no more.


	11. Chapter 11

 That evening, a grand banquet was held to celebrate both the freeing of the vanished and the safe return of Loki and I. As we walked into the feasting hall, hand in hand, the assembled throng of Asgardian aristocrats erupted into cheers, many of them chanting Loki’s name. A slight blush tinted his pale cheeks and he smiled rather shyly as he nodded and waved to them. I glowed with happiness to see him at last being accepted and praised, and tried to ignore the fact that some of the people were also calling _my_ name, because I didn’t quite know how to deal with that.

 Hogun approached us and bowed. “You have my eternal thanks,” he said earnestly. “Without your noble sacrifice, my people would never have been rescued. In my eyes at least, you have redeemed yourself, Loki.”

 Before either of us could respond, Sif stepped forward. “I misjudged you, Loki,” she said, “and I wish to apologise. I see now that you are not the person you once were, or that I thought you to be. And you, Louise – I misjudged you, too. I never imagined mortals could have such courage.”

 I was taken aback, and, from Loki’s expression, so was he. We were saved from having to come up with an answer by Odin, who rose from his seat at the highest table and banged Gungnir on the floor to get everyone’s attention. When silence fell, he announced: “We feast tonight in honour of Loki and his woman, Louise. You have both made me proud. Loki, though you were not born one of us, your actions have shown you to be a true Asgardian in your heart. On the morrow I must make you mortal again and send you back to Midgard, but know that you will forever be a prince of Asgard ... and my son.”

 

 Later, when the feasting was done, Loki and I retired to his chambers for the night. Loki reclined on the bed and removed our clothes with a click of his fingers. “Would you like to take advantage of my magic while I still have it?” he asked me, his eyes twinkling. “Enjoy another night with my double and I, perhaps?”

 “Um ... not that,” I said, rather hesitantly, “fun though it was. But ... er ... there _is_ something I’d like to try, if ... if you don’t mind.”

 “What is it?”

 “I’d ... um ... I’d like you to take me in your jotun form,” I said. I’d been thinking about this for a while, but hadn’t been sure how to broach the subject, knowing how uncomfortable Loki was with his frost giant heritage. He still disliked any mention of it being made. I had only seen his jotun form once, and I’d practically had to beg him to show it to me. He’d been convinced I would find him repulsive and terrifying, and though I’d declared him beautiful, I knew he hadn’t liked me seeing him in a form he considered monstrous.

 The playfulness drained from Loki’s face. “I can’t do that,” he said flatly. “I’m too cold in that form, I would hurt you.”

 “I don’t think you would,” I said. “You’re cold, yes, but not _too_ cold. I touched you that time in your cell without harm.”

 “That was one brief touch,” Loki argued. “You’re talking about a full sex session.”

 “Couldn’t we at least try?” I pleaded. “I’ll tell you if it hurts, and you could always heal me if anything went wrong. I know you could.”

 Loki almost squirmed with awkwardness. I could see he wanted to indulge me, yet desperately did not want to hurt me or, as he saw it, to sully our love with the abhorrent part of himself. “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather have two of me again?” he said persuasively. “Or me and somebody else, even? The double doesn’t have to be identical to me – I can make him look like anyone you want. Perhaps that actor you’re so fond of?”

 “Stop it, Loki,” I said, “I see what you’re doing. You’re trying to deflect me, and it isn’t going to work. You know I only want you, and I’d like to prove to you that there’s no part of you I don’t want. But if it really is too distressing for you, I suppose I understand.” I said the last part sadly.

 Loki sighed heavily. “Very well,” he said grudgingly. “If that’s what you really want, I’ll do it, since this is our last chance. But you _must_ tell me _at once_ if you feel any pain or numbness, alright?”

 “I promise,” I said solemnly.

 As I watched, Loki shifted into his jotun form, red flooding his eyes as his skin flushed blue. His body was adorned with odd, raised designs – some sort of tribal markings, the meaning of which neither of us knew. I could feel the chill coming from him, and, when I leaned in to kiss him, found his lips and tongue to be icy cold. It wasn’t unpleasant, however.

 I reached for his cock, only noticing when my hand wrapped around it that it, too, bore an embossed pattern. I traced the swirling lines with my fingertips, wondering what they would feel like inside me. Bending down, I took him in my mouth and sucked. It was like sucking an ice lolly.

 “Ah! Your mouth is so hot!” Loki exclaimed.

 I hastily released him. “Is it painful?” I asked.

 “No, just ... different. Carry on.”

 I did so, but soon paused again when I realized he wasn’t touching me at all. He was obviously trying to minimise the contact between us, worried about his coldness hurting me. “Loki, please touch me,” I whispered. I lapped encouragingly at his cock, running my tongue over the patterns on it.

 Loki lifted me up into a sitting position and tentatively, carefully, caressed my nipples. They hardened instantly at the combination of cold and sensation. Loki lowered his head and drew one into his mouth, making me whimper. He immediately let go, saying: “Did that hurt?”

 “No! It’s good!” I said. “Please, I ... I want more.”

 Loki smiled. “You always do,” he said, and suckled on my nipple again. At the same time, he slid a hand between my legs and stroked my folds lightly. I shivered as he slipped a finger into me – it felt freezing as it sank into my wet heat, like a piece of ice inside me. It was weirdly erotic. Loki took his mouth from my breast and checked again that all was well. “Stop asking,” I told him, “I’ll say something if I don’t like it.”

 Loki withdrew his finger from me and put it in his mouth, knowing it aroused me to see him savour my juices. I bit my lip, and he smirked and said: “Lie back and spread your legs, my pet. I want a proper taste of you.”

 Excitedly, I obeyed. He crawled down the bed and positioned himself on his chest between my thighs, letting me feel his frosty breath against my slit. I shivered again, partly at the chill and partly with anticipation. Then he delivered a long, slow lick, starting at my entrance and gliding up between my nether lips until he reached my clit. The coldness of his tongue felt strange, but in a good way – a very good way. I pushed my hips towards his face, mutely begging for more. Loki gave me what I wanted, sweeping his tongue over my clit a few times and then delving deeply into my warmth.

 “Oh, Loki,” I moaned, “that’s ... that’s incredible. Please, I want you. Now. Please!”

 Loki sat up, then stretched himself out on his back, his hands behind his head. “I think you had better go on top,” he said, “so you can move away quickly if you get too cold.”

 I nodded, and straddled him eagerly, taking his hardness in my hand and guiding it to my sex. I lowered myself onto him, squeezing him tight within me. “Mmm,” I sighed, “that’s so good, Loki ...”

 “You’re on fire!” he hissed, arching beneath me. “Ride me!”

 I did as he commanded. The ridged patterns on his cock caused extra stimulation as I rocked back and forth. I could feel his coldness seeping into me, spreading gradually through my belly, and for the first time acknowledged that he had reason to be concerned about taking me in this form – I could tell that the chill would become unpleasant, if not harmful, if we kept this up too long. There wasn’t much chance of that, though – I was rapidly approaching orgasm, and I knew Loki was, too.

 “I’m going to come!” he said warningly, his hands moving to grip my hips as he pumped himself into me harder. “I’ve never done it in this form before, I’m not sure how cold it’ll be. Do you still want it inside you?”

 “Yes!” I cried out. “Oh God, Loki, yes! Come in me! Fill me up!”

 Loki shuddered and groaned, his red eyes blazing as he came. I felt his seed spilling into me in icy spurts, the cold fluid splashing delightfully against my heated inner walls, and it propelled me into my own climax. I screamed his name, thrusting myself down onto his cock and grinding my clit against him. We writhed together in the throes of our passion until the last spasm subsided.

 I usually liked to remain entwined with him afterwards, but I guessed he wouldn’t permit that in his current state, and so rolled off him onto my back. I could still feel the coldness of his come inside me. “Thank you for doing that for me, Loki,” I said, grateful and satisfied in equal measure. “I know it wasn’t easy for you.”

 Loki shifted back to his normal appearance and pulled me against him. “Thank _you_ ,” he said, kissing my forehead, “for loving all of me.”


	12. Chapter 12

 In the morning, Loki dressed us in the Earth clothes we had arrived in, and we made our way to the throne room. Odin sat upon his throne, Frigga to one side of him and Thor to the other. Fandral, Volstagg, Hogun and Sif stood on the lower steps. Loki and I kneeled, but Odin at once motioned for us to rise.

 One by one, Sif and the Warriors Three came forward and bowed to us, smiling. I bowed back, and Loki clasped forearms with each of them. Then they filed out of the room, and Thor and his mother approached. They embraced us both, Frigga weeping openly. “I hope you will come back and visit us soon,” she said, wiping away her tears. “Odin has said he will allow it, despite your mortality, as a reward for your part in the rescue of the vanished.”

 “I’m sure we will be seeing them again before long, Mother,” said Thor, and winked at Loki. I frowned at him, wondering what I’d missed, but had no time to ask as Odin was descending from the dais.

 “I must take back your power now, Loki,” he said. “I regret that I must do this, but, proud though I am of your conduct, your sentence for your crimes on Midgard still stands.”

 “I would have it no other way,” said Loki. “I know now that there is no shame in being human, and much to learn from and enjoy about it.” He put his arm around my shoulders as he spoke, and I slid an arm around his waist in return.

 “You have indeed grown,” said Odin sagely. “I would never have guessed that you, of all people, would gain so much from association with a race you once thought beneath you. Are you prepared?”

 “I am.”

 With a beckoning gesture, Odin called forth Loki’s magic from him and dispelled it. Loki seemed to wilt for a moment, then recovered himself and stood tall again.

 “Farewell for now, my son,” said Odin.

 “Farewell, Father.”

***

 Two days later, back in our house on Earth, Loki entered the bedroom with a mischievous grin on his face and his hands behind his back.

 “What are you up to, Loki?” I asked, immediately suspicious – though in a pleasant way, of course. I assumed he was hiding some sort of bedroom toy behind his back.

 “I have been researching mortal courtship rituals,” said Loki, “and I have something for you.” He took his hands from behind his back and held out a small black box, the kind that usually contained jewellery. Surprised, but pleased, I took it and opened it to reveal a silver ring, shaped like a snake holding its tail in its mouth. Its eyes were tiny, glittering emeralds. It was lovely. I stared silently at it for a moment, not touching it, then looked up at him. Was this just a gift, or ... something more? Exactly how thoroughly had he researched ‘mortal courtship rituals’? Did he know what giving a ring implied?

 “The snake devouring its own tail represents eternity,” Loki went on. “I thought it fitting, especially given what you told me about me being the father of Jormungandr in your myths. But if you don’t like it ...”

 “Loki,” I broke in, “I love it. And I love _you_. It’s just ... do you ... are you ...?” I didn’t know how to finish that sentence. I wanted to ask if he understood the significance of giving a ring, but if he didn’t, if he hadn’t intended it as a proposal, I didn’t want to scare him with suggestions of marriage he wasn’t ready for.

 “Oh!” said Loki, as if suddenly remembering something. “I didn’t do it properly! Here, give it back ...” He snatched the box out of my hands, and dropped to one knee in front of me, holding up the ring like an offering.

 “Loki,” I whispered, my heart feeling like it was almost bursting, “are you ... are you asking me to ... to marry you?”

 “Actually,” said Loki, “I already did. I thought you said yes, but later I realized you didn’t understand what I was asking, because I did it the Asgardian way. So now I’m doing it the mortal way. This _is_ what mortals do, isn’t it? One gives a ring whilst on one knee?”

 “Wait ... what?” I said in confusion. “You asked me already? When?”

 “On Vanaheim,” said Loki, “when I gave you _that_.” He pointed to the pendant hanging around my neck. “Among Asgardians, one gives that emblem to a lover to request their hand in marriage. If they accept the item bearing the symbol, they are saying yes to the marriage.”

 I gaped at him. Now the reaction of Thor and the others to seeing me wearing the pendant made sense. They thought Loki and I had got engaged!

 “And you don’t actually have to _ask_ them?” I said. “You don’t actually have to say the words: ‘Will you marry me?’”

 “No. Everyone knows what giving the symbol and accepting it means.”

 “Well, here on Earth we need the words,” I said firmly.

 “Fair enough,” said Loki. “Will you marry me?”

 “Yes,” I replied, “of course I will. My answer would have been the same on Vanaheim if I’d only known what you were asking. I love you, Loki.”

 “And I love you, my queen.”


End file.
